•'^^^^^^gf; 


■WPl  www  ■  WH  ^gWWBIWfrJW  WVA  wr/ii 


lUWIIiUMIIMllHH 


THE  LIBRARY 
OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcli  ive.org/details/americanfonostenOOmcdeiala 


)9(. 


A.  0.  %k%m 


Wfff^f^ 


JOHN  flRNFLL 

FONOSTENOGRAFY 


A  Modern  system  of  Rapid  and  Readable  Shorthand; 
based  on  the  laws  of  linear,  vocalized,  connective- 
vowel  phonography;  formulating  and  applying  an  en- 
tirely original  principle  of  legibility  and  brevity — the 
Fonostenoo[rafic  Root. 


A  New  Method  of  Shorthand  Self- Instruction 


A  0.  BAVm 

WILLIAM   McDEVITT  ^-ALU^,  iAi(A.3 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C.  : 
JUDD  &  DETWEIIvKR.  PRINTERvS, 

1895. 


Copyright,  1895,  by  William  McDevitt. 


»      •      •       < 

,»       ••      •     •< 


[A\h3  a 


THE  GENESIS  OF  SHORTHAND  WRITING. 


Many  of  the  profoundest  masters  of  philology  deem  it  a  fuiula- 

mental  principle  of  the  science  of  language  that  without  speech 

there  could  have  been  no  thought,  without  thought  no  reason, 

without  reason  no  conscious  being,  no  barrier  between  animal 

existence  and  humau  life.     That  conceptual  ideas  cannot  exist 

in  a  naked  state,  unclothed  with  language,  is  a  postulate  which 

possesses   for  one   school  of   philologists  the  authority  of  an 

trj  axiomatic  truth,  while  an  equally  eminent  array  of  linguistic 

**   learning  stands  in  stalwart  opposition  to  such  a  principle  and 

>•   assails  every  assumption  that  language  and  thought  are  one  and 

*2   indivisible.     The  question,  therefore,  is  and,  in  the  nature  of  the 

^   problems  involved,   must  perhaps  always  be  sub  judice.     But 

altlio  this  scientific  dogma  of  the  causal  connection  of  speech 

with  thought  cannot  claim  for  itself  universal  acceptance,  it 

£2  seems  not  at  all  unreasonable  to  assume  that  the  earliest  awak- 

^   ening  of  man's  rational  faculties  into  conscious  activity  was 

a;    attended    and   attested   by  that  utterance  of  articulate  sounds 

-i    which,  in  the  narrower  sense  of  the  term,  we  call  language. 

All  our  thoughts  and  emotions  are  expressed  by  the  human 

voice  in  an  infinite  series  of  varied  utterances.     Ideas  are  the 

y    spirit  of  language,  articulate  sounds  its  substance,  and  the  vocal 

t    organs  its  instruments.     In  speech,  language  addresses  itself 

H    to  the  ear  by  means  of  its  phonetic  embodiment  in  sound.     To 

image  forth  to  the  eye  the  substance  of  language,  to  fix  and 

perpetuate  the  phonetic  embodiment  of  speech,  became  early 

in   human  development  absolutely  essential  to  the  evolution 

of  mankind ;    and  when  this  necessity  realized  itself,  writing 

was  invented. 

(3) 

449503 


4  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

' '  The  discovery  of  some  rude  form  of  the  art  of  writing, ' '  says 
Taylor  in  his  monumental  work  on  the  alphabet,  "  was  the  first 
permanent  step  that  was  taken  in  the  progress  toward  civiliza- 
tion." In  its  primitive  form,  writing  was  simply  an  imperfect 
essay  in  the  drawing  of  pictures.  These  rude  pictorial  represen- 
tations of  objects  came  by  degrees  to  be  conventionalized  into 
ideograms,  a  pure  ideogram  being  the  picture  of  an  object  taken 
as  the  symbol  of  an  abstract  thought  or  idea.  Through  the  cul- 
tural process  of  the  ages  these  ideograms  were  developed  into 
phonograms,  or  graphic  symbols  of  sounds.  Phonograms,  or 
symbols  of  sounds,  may  be  divided  into  four  species  :  signs  for 
words,  signs  for  phrases  (or  combinations  of  words),  signs  for 
syllables  (or  components  of  words),  and  signs  for  letters  (or  ele- 
ments of  words).  The  letter  signs  are  alphabetic  symbols  repre- 
senting the  elementary  sounds  into  which  syllables  may  be 
resolved,  and  the  syllable-signs  stand  for  those  combinations  of 
letters  which  form  the  primary  division  of  a  word.  The  letters 
of  our  ordinary  alphabet  are  phonograms  which  have  been  sub- 
jected to  so  long  a  process  of  detrition  as  to  reach  an  ultimate 
stage  of  symbolism  in  form  and  value. 

For  ages  after  human  civilization  had  attained  that  epoch  in 
the  art  of  writing  which  is  marked  by  the  evolution  of  the 
primal  ideograms  into  those  conventional  phonograms  which 
make  up  the  alphabets  and  scripts  of  common  use,  these  scripts 
and  alphabets  proved  adequate  to  the  exigencies  of  graphic  repre- 
sentation. But  when  advancing  material  progress  augmented  its 
demands  upon  the  capacities  of  the  longhand  writing  of  ancient 
times,  this  system  of  graphic  representation,  magnificent  factor 
tho  it  had  been  in  the  world's  progress,  failed  to  afford  the  facili- 
ties required  for  fluent  copying  of  all  kinds,  for  the  expeditious 
transcribing  of  commercial  correspondence,  and  for  the  rapid 
reporting  of  legislative  and  judicial  proceedings.  Hence,  having 
taxed  the  strength  of  longhand  script  to  its  utmost,  its  writers 
began  to  search  for  its  elements  of  weakness ;  and  as  soon  as 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  5 

attention  was  drawn  to  the  imperfections  and  desiderata  of  the 
style  of  writing  in  vogue,  and  to  the  attributes  of  a  more  perfect 
system  of  script,  it  was  seen  that  tlie  longhand  method  fails  by 
reason  of  its  lack  of  two  qualities:  it  is  neither  brief  nor  true, 
neither  terse  nor  exact,  neither  concise  nor  precise.  The  letters 
of  the  longhand  alphabet  are  cumbrously  long  and  complex  in 
the  writing,  and  their  value  as  symbols  is  shifting  in  use  and 
unstable  in  power.  The  divergence  and  disparity  between  spoken 
words  and  written  words,  between  the  sounds  of  speech  and  the 
symbols  of  speech,  have  grown  so  great  that  the  character  orig- 
inally intended  as  the  sign  of  the  sound  has  come  to  be  merely 
a  sign  of  the  sound.  Imperfectly  as  the  longhand  alphabet  had 
in  the  days  of  its  invention  and  earliest  practice  fulfilled  the  aims 
and  capacities  of  a  scientific  symbolization  of  thought,  it  was 
now  clearly  perceived  that  this  alphabet  had,  as  a  result  of  its 
forced  and  incongruous  adaptation  from  the  early  tongue  of 
Phoenicia  to  a  variety  of  diverse  modern  languages  through  Greek 
and  Latin  channels  of  speech  and  of  script,  lost  half  its  ancient 
truth  as  a  system  of  phonetic  characters  and  lacked  immensely 
the  modern  requirements  of  graphic  fitness  and  accomplishment. 
To  afford,  therefore,  a  system  of  symbolization  so  concise  as 
to  match  the  celerity  of  vocal  articulations,  so  susceptible  of 
rapid  execution  as  to  record  words  as  fast  as  they  are  uttered, 
so  practicable  as  to  subserve  all  the  purposes  of  expeditious 
transcribing  and  reporting  and  tneet  all  those  necessities  of 
modern  writing  which  are  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  longhand 
alphabets,  a  vast  number  of  graphic  systems,  based  on  every 
imaginable  principle  of  abbreviated  script,  were  devised  and 
practiced.  All  of  these  systems  of  writing  are  known  by  the 
generic  term  of  shorthand . 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SHORTHAND  SYvSTEMS. 


By  the  records  that  come  to  us  from  the  earliest  times  we  are 
told  that  the  hand  of  writing  is  older  than  the  tongue  of  speech. 
The  memories  of  script  outlive  those  of  language,  and  science, 
when  it  explores  the  wisdom  of  the  past,  is  keener  in  sense  of 
sight  than  in  sense  of  hearing.  Between  the  ancient  days  of 
pictograph  and  phonogram  and  the  modern  era  of  phonograph 
and  kinetoscope,  so  vast  is  the  stretch  of  ages  that  only  a  small 
portion  thereof  is  contemplated  and  surveyed  in  the  daylight  of 
history  ;  around  the  rest  close  the  twilight  of  fable  and  the 
shadows  of  tradition.  Legends  of  primitive  systems  of  short- 
hand carry  us  back  to  the  very  dawn  of  history  ;  but,  though  we 
are  told  that  the  practice  of  shorthand  was  kno\vni  in  early  days 
to  ancient  Greeks  and  Hebrews  and  flourished  in  the  time  of 
Cicero,  whose  amanuenses  wrote  stenography,  and  of  Vespasian, 
who  strove  to  popularize  a  system  of  brief  script,  yet  so  scant  is 
our  knowledge  of  the  methods  employed  and  the  results  obtained 
before  the  year  1588,  (the  date  of  the  issue  by  Dr.  Timothie  Bright 
of  the  first  system  of  English  shortwriting),  that  we  may  well 
limit  the  era  of  shorthand  to  the  last  three  hundred  years.  This 
lapse  of  time  is  divided  into  two  periods  :  the  first  is  the  age  of 
Stenography,  extending  over  250  years  ;  the  second  is  the  age 
of  Phonography,  which  begins  practically  with  the  publication 
in  1837  of  Isaac  Pitman's  Stenographic  Soundhand.  Though 
Pitman's  system  was  in  no  sense  of  the  term  an  invention,  as 
it  not  only  appropriated  from  Harding's  improvement  on  Tay- 
lor's old  method  the  principle  of  paired  cognate  strokes  and 
triple-position  vowel  dots  and  dashes,  but  was  also  preceded  by 
other  systems  which  to  a  degree  were,  and  which  .styled  them- 
selves/>Afj«c»^;'fl/>//7V5  (Phonographic  World,  iv,  294)  ;  yet  as  the 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  7 

introduction  of  Pitman's  method  so  popularized  shori;writing  as 
to  make  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  use  of  shorthand,  it 
is  well  enough  to  establish  as  the  day  of  deniarkation  between 
the  period  of  stenography  and  the  period  of  phonography,  the 
date  of  the  appearance  of  the  Pitmatic  system. 

Of  the  scores  of  shorthand  systems  devised  during  the  first 
period  nearly  every  one  was  a  system  of  stenography — that  is, 
a  system  of  shortwriting  composed  of  brief  characters  repre- 
senting the  letters  of  the  longhand  alphabet,  and  no  more  gov- 
erned by  phonetic  laws  than  is  the  conventional  alphabet  of 
ordinary  script.  These  stenographies  failed  to  fulfil,  even  in 
theory,  the  whole  requirement  of  a  competent  method  of  short- 
hand ;  they  afforded  no  provision  for  remedying  one  of  the  two 
essential  defects  of  longhand  writing — they  were  not  phonetic. 
Moreover,  besides  this  radical  imperfection  arising  out  of  the 
ignoring  of  phonetic  principles,  the  stenographies  were  found 
uniformly  faulty  when  viewed  from  a  point  of  regard  for  the 
rules  of  rapid  writing  and  the  qualities  that  make  for  speedy 
and  fluent  hand-movement.  With  interminable  lists  of  arbitrary 
characters  and  contractions,  with  signs  as  complex  in  composi- 
tion and  cumbrous  in  curve  and  stroke  as  could  well  be  con- 
trived, these  systems  gave  little  heed  to  the  principle  that  only 
those  outlines  which  are  facile  in  form  and  simple  in  design, 
only  those  outlines  which  involve  clear  mental  processes  and 
accord  with  the  natural  movements  of  cursive  script,  can  be 
traced  with  so  high  a  degree  of  rapidity  as  to  prove  serviceable 
for  the  purposes  of  shorthand.  Hence  the  stenographic  systems, 
like  the  longhand  alphabets  before  them,  were  superseded  by  a 
series  of  phonographic  methods,  nearly  all  of  which  are  based 
on  the  Pitmanic  prototype. 

Isaac  Pitman's  phonography  was  the  earliest  method  of  rapid 
writing  that  in  either  of  the  two  essential  respects  of  theory  and 
practice  is  perfect — it  is  perfect  in  theory.  The  phonetic  basis 
on  which  it  is  founded  and  the  phonetic  analysis  which  charac- 


8  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

terizes  its  exposition,  are  in  as  close  accord  as  is  practicable  with 
the  principles  of  phonology.  As  a  system  it  affords  a  theoreti- 
cally precise  and  simple  symbolization  for  every  radical  sound 
of  English  speech  ;  its  formal  substance  consists  of  characters 
that  are  facile  and  distinctive  ;  its  organic  development  attair.s 
a  marvelous  degree  of  structural  specialization  and  correlation  ; 
analyticall3'  and  synthetically  it  is  perfect — in  theory.  But  altho 
the  system  is  founded  on  an  adequate  recognition  of  both  of  the 
inherent  defects  of  longhand  writing  and  professedly  is  fitly 
formed  to  fulfil  the  purposes  of  a  successful  shorthand,  yet  in 
practice  it  has  sacrificed  so  much  to  the  exigencies  of  rapid  writ- 
ing as  to  violate  fundamentally  the  principles  of  symbolic  pre- 
cision. Vowel  representation  is  subjected  to  a  standard  of  dis- 
tinction which  is  based  on  the  position  of  each  character  in  the 
outline,  without  regard  tothefactthat  very  many  of  the  outlines 
consist  of  more  than  one  character,  each  of  which  requires  for 
the  correct  indication  of  its  accompanying  vowel  sound  a  differ- 
ent position  from  the  other  character  or  characters.  Hence  the 
vowels  are  practically  suppressed  and  the  outlines  are  thereby 
so  divested  of  self-determining  factors  as  to  be  devoid  of  distinc- 
tion and  stripped  of  individuality.  In  other  words,  the  unvo- 
calized  style  of  phonography  sacrifices  theory  to  practice  and 
abandons  legibility  in  transcribing  to  speed  in  executing  the 
alphabetic  forms.  As  was  recently  said  in  an  article  in  the  lead- 
ing shorthand  journal  of  America  by  one  of  the  most  capable  of 
Pitmanic  teachers,  "There  is  little  truth  in  the  claim  that  in 
phonography,  as  fitted  for  reporting,  we  write  by  sound." 

To  repair  this  lack  of  legibility,  to  afford  that  representation 
for  which  shorthand  writers  insist  the  "vowels  are  crying," 
there  sprang  up  a  new  species  of  phonography,  a  method  of 
vocalized,  connecting-vowel  shorthand.  These  new  systems 
were  at  first  acclaimed  as  the  acme,  at  last,  of  stenographic  per- 
fection, the  paragon  of  brief  script.  The  problem  of  legibility, 
it  was  thought,  was  now  finally  and  forever  solved  ;  consonants 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  9 

were  represented  and  vowels  were  represented  ;  and  so  all  the 
phonetic  elements  came,  not  only  in  theory  but  also  in  practice, 
to  be  contemplated  in  a  scientific  representation  of  the  radical 
sounds.  But,  alas  !  the  advance  along  one  of  the  lines  of  brief 
and  true  writing  was  merely  an  indication  of  a  retreat  along  the 
other.  In  most  of  the  new  systems  of  connecting- vowel  short- 
hand it  was  soon  manifest  that  the  outlines  increased  in  prolixity 
directly  with  the  increase  in  legibility  ;  it  was  seen  that  many 
of  the  methods  were  devised  out  of  a  boundless  ignorance  of 
the  requirements  of  the  language,  were  absolutely  devoid  of 
organic  development,  and  were  addressed  to  a  class  of  learners 
whose  illiteracy  is  as  large  as  their  expectation,  and  who  long 
for  the  royal  road  of  "  a  few  easy  lessons  "  to  the  goal  of  short- 
hand acquisition. 

And  so  through  the  evolution  of  shorthand  systems  there  came 
to  be  two  well  defined  classes  of  phonographies — the  one  com- 
posed of  methods  based,  as  a  rule,  on  the  original  Pitmanic 
systems  and  efficient  for  every  reporting  purpose,  but,  by  reason 
of  complexity  and  illegibility,  capable  of  acquirement  only  by 
the  exceedingly  gifted  or  the  supremely  industrious  ;  the  other 
made  up  of  methods  of  shorthand  which  are  so  simple  as  to  be 
readily  mastered,  but  whose  simplicity  results  from  such  limita- 
tion in  principles  and  development  as  necessarily  renders  them 
absolvitely  incapable  of  reporting  power.  The  former  class 
appeals  to  a  high  standard  of  culture  ;  the  latter  addresses 
itself  to  a  lower  plane  of  mental  capability  and  development ; 
the  former  taxes  too  heavily  the  head,  the  latter  demands  an 
impossible  dexterity  of  the  hand. 


American  Fonostenografy. 


"Several  years  ago  I  studied  shorthand  with  a  view  to  taking 
notes ;  but  on  examining  several  systems  I  found  that  the  scien- 
tific systems  were  not  sufficiently /rarf/rrt^/^  and  i)xe  practicable 
systems  not  sufficiently  scientific.  It  seemed  to  me,  after  exam- 
ining some  dozen  popular  forms,  that  the  system  which  success- 
fully grapples  with  the  vowel  difficulty  has  yet  to  be  invented." 

— Thomas  Hardy.* 


American  Fonostenografy  is  a  compromise  between  the 
scientific  and  the  practicable  systems  of  shorthand;  its 
development  sprang  from  a  perception  of  the  advantages 
that  necessarily  inhere  in  the  older  consonant  phonog- 
raphies, and  from  a  recognition  of  the  defects  that  have 
not  been  remedied  in  the  newer  vocalized  methods.  WJien 
it  was  finally  demonstrated  that  the  Pitmanic  phonographies 
fail  to  afford  a  perfect  system  of  brief  writing,  the  shorthand 
reformers  in  their  zeal  for  progress  began  to  eliminate  much 
of  the  most  vital  element  of  these  systems ;  they  devised 
methods  of  constant  vocalization,  they  eradicated  the  prin- 
ciple of  shading,  they  attempted  to  abolish  all  distinctions 
based  on  position,  and  they  reduced  to  an  impossible  min- 

*  Author  of  "  Tess  of  the  D'Urbervilles,"  "  Hearts  Insurgent,"  and  other 
masterpieces  of  fiction. 

(lo) 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  II 

imum  the  old  interminable  lists  of  wordsigns.  To  secure 
legibility,  ease  of  acquirement  and  a  socalled  "  simplicity," 
they  destroyed  nearly  everything  that  gives  to  phonography 
its  marvelous  brevity;  to  the  attainment  of  a  readable  and 
an  easy  style,  they  sacrificed  everything,  unmindful  of  the 
fact  that  these  qualities  comprise  by  no  means  the  whole  of 
what  is  necessary  for  the  perfection  of  shorthand. 

American  Fonostenografy  is,  it  is  believed,  a  distinct 
advance  over  any  of  the  systems  that  purport  to  be  improved 
methods  of  phonography ;  and  it  bases  its  claim  to  this  su- 
periority upon  the  fact  that  its  aims  are  more  moderate  and 
practical  than  those  of  the  other  methods  in  the  same  sphere 
of  improvement.  Its  maxim  is.  Obtain  legibility  but  retain 
brevity;  be  readable  a«^ rapid.  In  the  conviction  of  the 
necessity  of  brevity  it  has  been  deemed  more  than  wise, 
it  has  been  deemed  absolutely  essential,  to  retain  the  device 
of  shading;  while  in  the  conviction  of  the  need  of  read- 
ableness  in  shorthand  writing  it  has  been  found  equally  es- 
sential that  so  ample,  and  only  so  ample,  a  representation 
should  be  given  to  the  vowels  as  would  materially  increase 
the  general  legibility  of  the  outlines  without  decreasing  the 
ultimate  speed-capacity  of  the  method.  American  Fono- 
stenografy shuns  the  two  extremes;  it  aims  to  furnish  the 
practically  perfect  mean  between  the  too-much  legibility  of 
longhand  and  the  too-much  brevity  of  (Grahamized)  short- 
hand ;  and  it  is  the  author's  sincere  conviction  that  this 
system  "  successfully  grapples  with  the  vowel  difficulty." 

Again,  American  Fonostenografy  affords  a  reform  in  the 
method  of  presenting  shorthand  instruction,  and  it  is  based 


12  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

on  an  entirely  new  manner  of  setting  forth  the  phonographic 
principles — a  manner  which  has  been  suggested  by  the 
modern  method  of  learning  languages,  a  manner,  indeed, 
of  learning  to  write  by  7unting.  A  practical  exemplifica- 
tion of  applied  fonostenografy  is  given  in  the  very  first 
lesson,  and  each  succeeding  lesson  is  so  arranged  as  to 
develop  in  order  all  the  principles  of  the  system,  and  to 
enable  the  student  io  practice  2i\.  the  same  time  that  he  learns 
each  of  the  phonographic  devices.  This  manner  of  acquir- 
ing a  mastery  of  shorthand  follows,  it  is  believed,  the  pre- 
cept of  Horace  to  combine  the  useful  with  the  pleasant — 
economy  of  time  in  learning,  with  tlie  enjoyment  of  interest 
in  studying;  it  saves  the  capable  student  many  hours  of 
needless  labor  and  many  days  of  superfluous  drudgery  in 
learning  to  write  multitudinous  lists  of  segregated  and  barren 
words,  words  shorn  of  context,  connection,  and  utility  ;  its 
standard  of  shorthand  study  and  practice  is  the  sentence, 
the  clause,  or  the  phrase,  and  not  the  solitary  and  isolated 
word;  it  is,  in  brief,  the  natural  method  of  learning  to 
write  shorthand  by  writing  shorthand.  All  systems  of 
writing  are  conditioned  by  context ;  a  real  metliod  of  short- 
hand owes  its  very  existence  to  context.  Now  in  mere  words 
context  cannot  inhere ;  it  is  only  to  be  found  in  phrases 
and  clauses  and  sentences,  only  in  combinations  of  words, 
for  it  is  the  result  of  relation  ;  and  therefore  he  alone  learns 
to  master  contexts,  who  regards  the  composition  and  the 
significance  of  phrases  and  clauses  and  sentences ;  and  he 
who  has  learned  to  master  contexts  has  acquired  the  prime 
requisite  of  successful  shorthand  practice. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  1 3 

Another  advantage  accruing  from  this  method  of  setting 
forth  a  shorthand  system  is  that  it  requires  as  a  prerequisite 
to  the  study  that  amount  of  mental  development  and  literary 
culture  which  is  absolutely  essential  to  success  in  the  use  of 
phonography.  Learners  who  are  destitute  of  this  necessary 
modicum  of  intellectual  training  will  find  it  a  hard  task, 
consequently,  to  make  much  progress  in  mastering  the  first 
lessons  of  this  manual.  But,  so  far  from  endeavoring  to 
avoid  this  seeming  hindrance  to  the  popularity  of  American 
Fonostenografy,  the  author  is  led,  by  experience  in  striving 
to  teach  shorthand  to  students  whose  lack  of  intellectual 
culture  and  of  the  sense  for  language  utterly  unfitted  them 
for  the  study,  to  hope  that  many  such  students  will  be 
deterred  from  an  unwise  attempt  to  learn  Fonostenografy 
before  they  have  repaired  their  inaptitude  for  shorthand 
work.  The  one  great  lack  of  fitness  for  phonographic  study 
arises  usually  out  of  ignorance  of  our  mother-tongue  ;  and 
since  this  same  ignorance  is,  among  even  the  applicants  for 
matriculation  at  the  leading  English  universities,  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  so  manifest  as  to  have  been  made  the  subject 
of  a  recent  report  by  the  university  examiners,  it  is  far  from 
surprising  that  a  large  number  of  students  of  shorthand  should 
be  affected  by  a  like  incapacity  to  practice  or  comprehend 
their  native  speech.  To  such  intending  learnei-s  the  author 
can  only  recommend  as  absolutely  essential  to  progress  in 
the  mastery  of  phonography  an  assiduous  study  of  English 
with  a  view  to  attaining  a  rational  comprehensian  and  ap- 
preciation of  the  language  as  a  highly  organized  vehicle  of 
expression. 


14  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

Oil  the  other  hand,  every  student  who  at  the  beginning 
of  his  study  is  equipped  with  a  moderate  degree  of  trained 
intelligence  and  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  English,  will 
most  assuredly  find  American  Fonostenografy  as  easy  of 
acquisition  as  it  is  simple  in  design  and  capable  in  practice. 

It  has  been  the  purpose  to  provide  in  this  manual  as  large 
an  amount  of  necessary  text  and  as  little  superfluous  matter 
as  seems  best  adapted  to  the  requirements  of  the  learner. 
Hence  (and  for  the  further  reason  that  it  is  thought  the 
legibility  of  the  system  precludes  the  need  of  such  aids)  all 
keys  and  "reading  matter"  have  been  excluded,  and  the 
space  which  the  insertion  of  such  keys  and  cognate  matter 
would  consume,  is  devoted  to  fonostenografic  outlines  and 
to  the  elucidation  of  the  principles  and  devices  of  the 
system  presented. 


X 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  1 5 

PRELIMINARY  SUGGESTIONS 

RESPECTING  THE  METHOD  OF 

PRACTICING    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


The  best  instrument  for  the  writing  of  Fonostenografy  is 
a  suitable/.??/;  "  in  ease  of  action  and  certainty  of  results  " 
a  gold  pen  is  superior  to  all  other  pens.  There  are  now 
on  the  market  half  a  dozen  standard  makes  of  fountain-pens, 
any  one  of  which,  fitted  with  a  flexible-nibbed  and  rather 
fine-pointed  pen,  will  be  found  perfectly  well  adapted  to 
the  needs  of  the  shorthand  reporter.  If  the  learner  finds 
it  more  convenient  to  use  a  pencil,  he  should  choose  such 
a  kind  as  is  especially  designed  for  stenographic  work. 
Among  the  more  suitable  pencils  for  this  purpose  the 
Eagle  Stenographic,  Dixon's  American  Graphite  Stenog- 
rapher, and  Faber's  Stenographic,  may  be  recommended. 
The  writer  of  Fonostenografy  should  acquire,  as  early  in 
his  practice  as  possible,  the  ability  to  use  both  pen  and 
pencil  in  his  reporting  work. 

The  paper  used  in  writing  should  be  such  as  is  thoroughly 
suitable  to  whichever  instrument — the  pen  or  the  pencil — 
is  being  employed  ;  and  it  will  be  found  better  to  trace  the 
outlines  always  on  ruled  paper,  tho  in  this  system  ruled 
lines  are,  of  course,  not  a  necessity,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  the  fonostenografic  notes  from  which  this  text  is  tran- 
scribed are  written  on  unruled  paper. 


1 6  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

The  very  important  questions  of  position  and  movement 
in  shorthand  writing  have  been  discussed  by  Professor  J. 
George  Cross,  the  inventor  of  "  Eclectic  Shorthand,"  per- 
haps more  successfully  than  by  any  other  author ;  and  the 
following  directions  in  relation  thereto  are  taken  (and  some- 
what condensed)  from  the  preface  of  that  author's  work. 
**  To  the  writer  of  shorthand,  correct  position  is  of  the 
utmost  importance,  both  for  its  influence  upon  the  health 
and  to  promote  ease  and  freedom  of  movement.  Whether 
the  writer  sits  or  stands,  the  position  of  the  entire  person 
should  be  such  as  not  only  to  allow  the  involuntary  action 
of  all  the  vital  organs,  but  also  the  fullest  possible  freedom 
of  all  the  muscles  of  the  entire  arm,  hand,  and  fingers. 
Thus  unrestrained,  writing  can  be  continued  hours  without 
fatigue;  while  simply  grasping  the  pen  tightly,  or  resting 
the  arm,  the  wrist,  or  the  hand  heavily  on  the  desk,  is  suffi- 
cient to  cause  uneasiness  and  fatigue  within  a  few  minutes. 
Especially  will  the  bending  forward  to  the  right  or  to  the 
left  of  the  head,  shoulders,  or  trunk  so  hinder  the  action 
of  the  vital  forces  as  in  a  short  time  to  cause  a  sense  of 
unrest,  cramping  or  impoverishing  the  style  of  writing, 
finally  producing  permanent  ungracefulness  in  attitude  and 
action,  with  an  enervated  and  diseased  condition  of  the 
entire  ])erson. 

"As  movement  cannot  but  depend  on  the  position  of 
the  writer,  so  the  character  of  the  writing  depends  on  the 
movement.  To  illustrate:  if  the  pen  be  so  held  in  the 
fingers  and  the  arm  so  placed  on  the  table  that  the  top  of 
the  penholder  points  over  the  shoulder,  then  the  natural 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  I  7 

movement  of  the  fingers  will  produce  writing  of  the  ordi- 
nary slope  ;  but  if  the  hand  is  rolled  over  to  the  right,  so 
that  the  penholder  points  away  from,  instead  of  toward, 
the  person,  the  movement  of  the  fingers  will  naturally  pro- 
duce the  back-hand  style  of  writing;  while  holding  the 
pen  so  that  the  holder  is  turned  neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the 
left,  but  is  held  in  a  line  with  the  arm,  will  produce  a  style 
of  writing  nearly  or  quite  vertical,  producing  lines  sloped 
to  the  right  or  left  with  equal  facility.  The  last-named 
position  is  the  proper  one  for  the  writer  of  shorthand, 
because  the  alphabetic  lines,  instead  of  following  a  uniform 
direction,  as  in  longhand,  are  written  in  various  directions, 
viz,  horizontal,  sloping  to  the  right,  and  to  the  left ;  and 
this  pose  of  the  pen  is  best  adapted  to  these  varying  move- 
ments. To  secure  this  position,  lay  the  hand  on  the  desk 
so  that  the  knuckle  of  the  forefinger  will  be  turned  upward, 
the  hand  and  arm  rolling  a  little  to  the  right  from  the 
position  for  longhand.  The  pen  should  be  held  firmly, 
but  not  tightly,  between  the  thumb  and  first  two  fingers, 
placing  the  end  of  the  thumb  against  the  holder  opposite 
the  first  joint  of  the  forefinger.  The  pen  should  extend 
far  enough  below  the  fingers  to  touch  the  paper  without 
special  effort.  The  third  and  fourth  fingers  should  bend 
under  the  hand  and  away  from  the  first  two,  resting  on  the 
paper,  thus  supporting  the  hand  and  rendering  the  move- 
ment of  the  thumb  and  pen-fingers  freer.  The  arm  and 
hand  should  lie  on  the  desk  with  the  least  possible  weight, 
that  the  movement  in  any  desired  direction  may  be  unim- 
peded." 


1 8  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

There  prevails  a  very  general  impression  that  stenog- 
raphers all  hold  the  pen  or  pencil  between  the  first  and 
second  fingers,  instead  of  between  the  thumb  and  forefin- 
ger ;  but  this  impression  is  altogether  erroneous,  as  was 
strikingly  shown  in  a  census  on  the  subject  taken  some 
years  ago  by  the  Phonographic  WorU,  from  which  it  is 
clearly  manifest  that  an  extremely  large  majority  of  the 
best  reporters  hold  the  pen  between  the  thumb  and  fore- 
finger, after  the  fashion  of  longhand  writers  and  in  accord- 
ance with  the  instructions  given  above. 

"In  shorthand  the  movement,"  to  quote  again  from 
Professor  Cross,  "  must  be  both  circumscribed  and  exact, 
while  it  is  free  and  flowing.  Flourishing  has  no  place  here  \ 
hence  all  tlie  exercises  and  all  practice  for  the  development 
of  movement,  while  they  tend  to  freedom,  must  result  in 
absolute  certainty  of  form.  In  longhand  it  is  customary 
to  give  large,  flowing,  free  exercises,  to  induce  a  bold  and 
off'-hand  execution  ;  but  in  sliorthand  no  drill  can  be  better 
for  the  movement  required  than  the  characters  themselves, 
which  should  be  written  singly  and  combined  with  a  free 
but  careful  movement,  slowly  at  first,  steadily  increasing 
the  rate  of  speed  as  familiarity  with  their  forms  is  acquired, 
writing  always  in  a  freehand  manner,  yet  with  an  uncom- 
promising purpose  to  secure  exactness  in  form,  direction 
and  size.  The  pen  should  neither  drag  nor  hurry ;  its 
movement  never  slow,  but  always  deliberate  and  decisive. 
Persevering  practice,  with  careful  attention  to  these  points, 
will,  by  daily  accretion  of  power,  finally  impart  skill  to 
the  most  obstinate  muscles." 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  1 9 

The  learner  should  always  bear  in  mind  that  the  practice 
of  Fonostenografy  consists  of  two  operations — writing  and 
reading',  each  of  these  is  quite  as  important  as  the  other. 
Students  of  shorthand  are  given,  as  a  general  thing,  to  neg- 
lecting the  matter  of  reading  their  notes  ;  they  are  inclined 
to  think  that,  while  they  are  obliged  to  gain  by  prolonged 
api)lication  the  ability  to  write  stenography,  the  ability  to 
read  it  will  come  spontaneously  and  without  effort  or  study. 
Yet  it  is  a  well  established  fact  that  there  are  hundreds  of 
mere  writers  of  shorthand  to  one  reader  of  shorthand;  and 
the  ability  to  transcribe  one's  notes  fluently  and  accurately 
is  attained  only  by  constant  and  continued  practice.  Much 
indeed  will  depend  on  the  mechanical  accuracy  with  which 
the  notes  are  written  ;  but  the  main  requisites  are  an  intel- 
ligent recognition  of  the  purpose  of  each  principle,  a 
thorough  comprehension  of  the  reason  of  each  rule,  a  dis- 
cerning appreciation  of  the  utility  of  each  device,  and  in 
the  execution  of  the  fonostenografic  outlines  the  most 
faithful  adherence  to  all  the  principles,  rules,  and  devices. 
The  first  thing  that  the  learner  should  do  with  respect  to 
every  principle  and  rule,  every  character  and  device,  is  to 
consider  it  carefully  until  it  is  clearly  understood  and  in- 
telligently appreciated.  Every  rule  is  based  upon  a  reason, 
and  the  student's  constant  aim  should  be  to  grasp  that 
reason,  and  thereby  to  proceed  understandingly  from  com- 
prehension to  application,  and  from  application  to  perma- 
nent mastery  of  the  principle  and  the  rule. 

Every  fonostenografic  note  that  is  written  should  be 
read  and  reread,  and  then  again   written  and  rewritten, 


20  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

until  each  character  and  outline  gains  a  place  in  the  mem- 
ory, fixed  and  permanent  forever.  The  best  way  to  begin 
the  study  of  each  new  lesson  is  to  review  carefully  the  one 
preceding.  No  one  who  has  ever  mastered  any  science  or 
art  need  be  told  of  the  value  of  constant  review  in  reviving 
and  perpetuating  one's  acquired  knowledge;  but  in  no 
study  is  review  of  greater  moment  than  in  the  learning  of 
shorthand,  and  upon  no  student  of  Fonostenografy  can  the 
necessity  of  incessant  restudying  be  too  deeply  impressed. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


FONOSTENOGRAFIC  SPELLING. 


The  characters  of  phonography  are  designed  to  symbolize 
the  articulate  sounds  of  the  human  voice.  Their  purpose 
is  to  afford  to  the  eye  a  representation,  concise  and  precise, 
of  what  we  hear  when  words  are  uttered.  The  outlines  of 
Fonostenografy  stand  for  spoken  sounds,  and  not  for  those 
artificial  collocations  of  the  longhand  letters,  which  repre- 
sent words  spelled  after  the  method  in  ordinary  use.  The 
shorthand  alphabet  varies,  consequently,  both  in  intent  and 
content,  from  the  vernacular  scripts  of  common  practice. 
To  disassociate  the  shorthand  signs  from  the  letters  of  the 
longhand  alphabet  is  the  first  lesson  that  the  student  should 
learn — and  the  last  that,  as  a  rule,  he  masters.  Longhand 
writing  is  based  on  English  spelling  ;  shorthand  writing  fol- 
lows the  rules  of  phonetic  spelling  ;  and  English  spelling  and 
phonetic  spelling  represent  poles  of  wide  divergence.  The 
orthography  of  longhand  frequently  has  two  ends  in  view — 
the  symbolizing  of  the  sound  of  the  words  and  the  record- 
ing of  their  etymologic  derivation  ;  but  shorthand  orthog- 
raphy aims  at  one  thing  only — the  representation  of  the 
sounds.  In  its  highest  form,  that  form  of  it  which  is 
adapted  to  the  swiftest  writing,  fonostenographic  orthog- 
raphy (which  is  a  species  of  shorthand  spelling)  aims  at  the 
representation  of  those  sounds  only  which  are  so  strong  and 
significant  that  their  symbolization  is  demanded  for  the 
purposes  of  legibility. 


22  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

In  order  to  counteract  the  bad  habit  of  "  good  "  English 
spelling,  the  shorthand  student  should  practice  very  assidu- 
ously in  the  beginning  of  his  study  that  method  of  phonetic 
spelling  upon  which  Fonostenografy  is  based.  Every  word 
that  he  is  about  to  write  in  shorthand,  should  be  resolved 
either  mentally  or  aloud  into  its  phonetic  elements.  To 
be  able  to  do  this  intelligently  and  accurately,  the  student 
should  be  versed  in  the  general  laws  of  phonetic  spelling 
and  in  the  principles  of  a  true  orthograpliy.  It  is  not 
deemed  wise  to  introduce  here,  after  the  manner  of  most 
shorthand  authors,  any  disquisition  on  the  quality  and 
classification  of  consonants  and  vowels,  or  any  table  of  the  40 
or  more  radical  sounds  in  English  speech.  This  subject  has 
been  many  times  set  forth  in  standard  works  in  a  far  more 
complete  and  in  an  incomparably  more  accurate  manner 
than  it  has  ever  been  treated  in  any  shorthand  textbook,  and 
the  student  is  therefore  recommended  to  study  some  one  or 
more  of  those  authoritative  works  on  English  phonetics 
which  will  enable  him  to  master  thoroughly  the  principles 
and  the  practice  of  the  art  of  phonetic  spelling.* 

*See  Latham's  Handbook  of  the  English  Language,  part  11, 
chapter  i ;  Fowler's  English  Grammar,  part  11  ;  Prof.  Max 
Miiller's  Science  of  Language,  lecture  iii,  "The  Physiological 
Alphabet ;  "  Prof.  A.  H.  Sayce's  Introduction  to  the  Science  of 
Language,  vol.  i,  chapter  iv,  The  Physiology  and  Semasiology 
of  Speech  (Phonology  and  Sematology)  ;  Sweet's  Handbook  of 
Phonetics  ;  and,  if  the  student  should  care  to  refer  to  the  richest 
thesaurus  of  knowledge  on  the  subject,  the  works  of  Alexander 
J.  Ellis. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  23 

A  few  directions  in  regard  to  the  application  of  phonetic 
spelling  to  Fonostenografy  may  here  be  found  useful.  The 
student  will  perceive  that  the  consonant  elements  cannot,  in 
general,  be  uttered  without  the  accompaniment  of  a  vowel 
sound.  For  the  purpose  of  this  accompanying  sound,  any 
vowel  might  serve.  The  "  neutral  vowel,"  *  however,  is 
thought  best  adapted  for  this  use,  and  tlie  following  consid- 
erations may  serve  to  justify  its  selection:  (a)  Certain  of 
the  weakest  and  most  insignificant  of  the  vowels  may  be 
conceived  to  be  inherent  in  the  consonant  sounds  them- 
selves, just  as  in  the  old  Hebrew  writing  certain  vowels 
were  taken  to  be  inherent  in  certain  consonants,  and  the 
expression  of  the  consonant  conveyed  the  expression  of  the. 
inherent   vowel ;  (^)  this  neutral   vowel   is  one  of  those 

*  This  is  often  called  the  nattcral  vowel  because  it  requires 
almost  no  effort  to  utter  it,  the  mouth  being  slightly  opened  in 
the  easiest  or  most  natural  and  unconstrained  manner  for  the 
passage  of  voice  in  a  nearly  unmodified  form.  *  *  *  it  has 
been  more  aptly  termed  the  neutral  vowel,  with  reference  to  its 
want  of  any  strongly  marked  distinctive  character  ;  and  this 
name  is  here  adopted  as,  on  the  whole,  preferable  to  any  other. 
The  sound  differs  from  that  of  short  11  (with  which  it  has  often 
been  identified)  in  length  and  in  a  somewhat  greater  degree  of 
closeness.  It  occurs  in  monosyllables  before  r  not  followed  by 
a  vowel  (as  in  cur,  fur,  furl,  hurt,  burst,  purr)  ;  in  accented 
syllables  before  r  final  or  r  followed  by  one  or  more  consonants, 
different  from  itself  (as  in  recur,  curfew,  furlong,  disbursed)  ; 
and  in  derivatives  from  any  such  words  (as  currish,  furry, 
purring,  recurring).  Webster's Didiojiary  [nnahriiXg^ed)  ;  Prin- 
ciples of  Pronunciation,  \  34. 


24  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

inherent  sounds,  and  it  is  given  whenever  it  is  medial  in  a 
syllable,  no  separate  representation  in  the  fonostenografic 
outline;  and  {c)  it  is  subject  to  many  slight  variations  in 
sound  to  which  it  would  in  any  system  of  rapid  writing 
be  absolutely  impracticable  to  give  a  distinct  and  separate 
symbolization.  It  is  concluded,  therefore,  that  as  some  per- 
manently inherent  vowel  sound  is  required  for  the  purposes 
of  phonetic  spelling,  this  neutral  vowel  will  serve,  better 
than  any  other,  as  a  constant  vowel-accompaniment  to  the 
consonants.  In  the  phonetic  analyses  contained  in  this 
manual  the  sound  here  in  question  is,  when  it  is  used  as 
the  vowel-accompaniment  of  consonants,  represented  by 
the  sign  of  the  apostrophe  (')  ;  e.  g.,  resolving  the  word 
apostrophe  \\\\.o  its  phonetic  elements,  we  have  ^, /',  o,  str" , 

o,f,  e. 

The  neutral-vowel  sound,  which  the  student  is  directed 
to  use  as  an  accompaniment,  in  the  phonetic  analyses,  to 
all  consonant  sounds,  sliould  be  pronounced  after  initial 
and  medial  consonants  and  before  final  consonants;  Init 
where  a  consonant  is  immediately  followed  by  another  con- 
sonant without  the  interposition  of  a  vowel,  and  both 
consonants  are  to  be  given  a  separate  representation  in 
the  shorthand  outlines,  the  neutral  vowel  accompaniment 
should  precede  the  former  as  well  as  the  latter  of  the  suc- 
cessive consonants. 

Another  rule  that  the  learner  should  follow  is,  that  where 
the  writing  gives  but  a  single  character  to  represent  the 
combination  of  two  or  more  elementary  sounds,  there,  in 
the  phonetic  analysis  and  spelling,  the  combination  should 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  25 

be  retained  and  uttered  as  a  whole  and  not  resolved  into 
its  component  parts,  e.  g.,  in  the  words  one,  ten,  strike, 
quite,  the  sounds  tin,  en,  str\  kw\  each  of  which  is  repre- 
sented by  a  single  shorthand  character,  should  be  regarded 
as  being,  each  of  them,  a  single  compound  sound,  and  they 
should  not  be  spelled  u  '«,  e  'n,  /  /'  r',  k'w\ 

Whenever,  for  the  ])urposes  of  fonostenografic  spelling 
the  student  pronounces  as  one  compound  sound  such  a 
combination  of  consonants  as  sp,  shut,  kd,  and  numerous 
others,  and  there  occurs  between  the  two  or  more  consonants 
that  compose  the  digraph  or  trigraph  or  other  compound, 
such  a  vowel  sound  as  is  not  to  be  given  a  separate  repre- 
sentation, the  student  should  utter  the  consonant  combina- 
tion with  its  own  vowel  sound  and  not  with  the  neutral 
vowel.  This  latter  sound  is  to  be  used  only  when  the 
vowel  in  the  syllable  or  word  to  be  written,  is  to  have  a 
distinct  representation  of  its  own,  and  when  it  is  necessary, 
in  order  to  enunciate  fully  the  consonant  sound  to  be  sym- 
bolized, to  give  it  a  vowel-accompaniment. 

The  following  fonostenografic  analyses  are  furnished  for 
the  purpose  of  exemplifying  that  mode  of  shorthand  spelling 
which  is  commended  to  the  learner  : 

The  words  of  the  sentence,  "These  few  precepts  in  thy  mem- 
ory see  thou  character,"  should  be  analyzed  phonetically  into —  ' 
Th  (soft)  e  's,/'  u,  pr'  e  sept  '^,  i '«,  111'  1,  vi' enir  i,  5'  e,  th^  ou, 
k'  dr'  a  'k  ter.  The  sentence,  "  Thanks,  to  men  of  noble  minds, 
is  honorable  meed,"  should  be  resolved  into  these  elements  : 
Th'  A  'ngk  's,  t  00,  VI  en,  ii  v,  «'  d  bl,  m'  i  'nd  's,  i  's,  d  nr  a  bl, 
nt'  e  'd. 


26  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

EXERCISE-SENTENCE  I. 

In  the  engraved  plate  below,  the  whole  shorthand  sentence  is 
given  first  (a)  ;  then  follow  {d)  the  single  characters  that  make 
np  the  fonostenografic  words  of  the  sentence.  Below  the  short- 
hand characters  the  fonostenografic-spelling  analysis  of  each 
word  is  furnished. 


\/  ^//v 


T/i^  c's,  f  u,  pr*  e  septs,  i '//,  ///'  /,  ;;/'  emr  i, 
s'  e,  ih'  oil,  k^  a  r'  a  ^ k  let. 


Having  analyzed  the  sounds  of  each  of  tlie  words  which 
occur  in  this  first  exercise  and  having  studied  carefully  the 
instructions  here  given  in  connection  with  this  first  lesson, 
the  student  should  practice  writing  (i)  each  separate  short- 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  27 

hand  cliaracter,*  (2)  each  phonetic  outline,  and  (3)  the 
whole  sentence.  Care  should  be  taken  to  make  each  char- 
acter and  outline  conform  in  its  proportions  as  nearly  as 
possible  to  the  copy  given  ;  and  the  direction  taken  by  the 
strokes  and  curves,  the  size  of  each  sign,  and  the  mode 
of  its  junction  with  preceding  and  consequent  strokes  or 
curves,  circles,  or  hooks,  should  all  be  closely  noted  and 
carefully  reproduced.  Special  attention,  too,  must  be  given 
to  the  matter  of  writing  tlie  characters  lightly  or  heavily, 
as  their  sound-value  f  requires,  the  curves  and  strokes  which 
are  shaded  in  the  exercise-sentence  being  shaded  in  the 
learner's  writing,  and  those  which  are  in  light  lines, 
written  lightly.  The  reason  for  the  arrangement  of  the 
shorthand  characters  in  thin  lines  and  thick  lines,  light 
strokes  and  curves  and  shaded  strokes  and  curves,  "  is  im- 
portant and  should  be  thoroughly  understood.  By  com- 
paring the  sounds  of  any  two  signs  thus  classed  together 
it  will  be  found  that  one  is  but  a  slight  modification  of  the 
other  ;  that  they  are  produced  at  the  same  point  and  by 
the  same  contact  of  the  organs  of  speech  in  almost  precisely 
the  same  manner,  the  only  difference  being  that    in  one 

*  It  may  be  observed  that  the  term  "  character"  is  here  and 
throughout  used  to  indicate  a  single  stroke,  or  curve,  or  hook  ; 
and  that  the  word  "  outline  "  signifies  the  whole  combination 
of  any  number  of  characters  joined  together.  The  terms  "  sign  ' ' 
and  "  fonostenograf  "  designate  either  character  or  outline. 

t  The  term  sound-value  is  used  to  signify  the  power  or  value 
in  sound  of  the  shorthand  sign,  or  to  mean  that  sound  or  com- 
bination of   sounds  for  which  the  shorthand  expression  stands. 


28  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

case  the  action  of  the  organs  is  accompanied  by  a  slight 
sound,  a  sound  of  the  breath  simply,  and  in  the  other  the 
same  action  is  accompanied  by  a  partially  suppressed  vocal 
sound.  This  undertone  or  subvocal  constitutes  the  only 
difference  between  the  words  pay  and  bay,  tame  and  dame, 
chest  a.nd  jest,  kilt  and  gilt,  fan  and  van,  thigh  and  thy,  seal 
and  zeal,  and  shun  and  -sion  in  vision^  {Munson^s  Com- 
plete Phonographer,  p.  20.)  So  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
initial  consonants  in  the  words  just  given  are  paired  in 
power,  the  same  stroke  or  curve  representing  both  of  the 
consonant  sounds,  which  are  differentiated  one  from  the 
other  only  by  the  thinness  or  thickness  of  the  line  of  the 
character. 

The  first  character  given  in  the  shorthand  sentence  repre- 
sents the  sound-value  expressed  by  the  ordinary  alphabetic 
convention  th ;  and  it  may  be  written  lightly  to  indicate 
its  sharp  or  whispered  sound,  and  heavily  to  indicate  the 
breathed  or  vocal  sound;  but  in  ordinary  reporting  it  is 
absolutely  needless  as  a  general  rule  to  make  this  distinction 
in  the  case  of //i^j*?  cognates ;  therefore  the  character  writ- 
ten with  a  light  line  expresses  both  sound-values  of  the 
digraph  th. 

The  stroke  for/  (the  first  character  in  the  second  out- 
line) is  halved  (J.  e.,  written  only  half  as  long  as  its  normal 
length)  for  the  purpose  of  indicating  the  added  sound  of  r, 
the  character  being  thereby  given  the  sound-value  pr,  per, 
p'tr,  and//?r;  as  \\\  propose,  perfor?n,  pyrotechnic ,  ox  purpose. 
Observe  here  that  the  sounds  i,  e,  and  ti  (short  /,  e,  and  ?/). 
are  very  frequently  omitted  from  the  phonetic  outlines,  since 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  29 

any  specific  representation  of  them,  other  than  that  which  is 
derived  from  the  fact  that  these  three  vowel  sounds  may  be 
conceived  to  he  inherent  in  the  accompanying  consonant, 
has  by  experience  been  found  to  be  generally  unnecessary 
for  the  purpose  of  rendering  the  outline  clearly  legible. 

As  explained  in  the  foregoing  chapter  on  fonosteno- 
grafic  spelling,  this  is  especially  the  case  where  the  sylla- 
ble in  which  any  of  these  three  sounds  occurs  is  a  weak 
one  (that  is,  unaccented)  or  an  insignificant  one  (that  is, 
such  as  affords  no  special  assistance  in  so  distinguishing  or 
differentiating  the  syllable  in  question  as  to  aid  in  the 
determination  of  the  word  for  which  the  outline  is  used). 
It  will  be  found  advantageous  to  follow  from  the  first  that 
very  primary  rule  of  rapid  writing  which  declares  against 
the  expression  of  unnecessary  sounds ;  and  all  those  sounds 
which  are  weak  or  insignificant,  and  especially  those  which 
are  both,  are,  for  the  reason  that  they  do  not  essentially 
conduce  to  legibility  in  the  transcription  of  the  shorthand 
matter,  held  to  be  superfluous  in  reading,  and  consequently 
negligible  in  writing.  Among  such  sounds  those  here  in 
question,  namely,  i,  e,  and  H,  are  found  more  frequently 
than  any  others.  Hence  it  is  a  rule  of  very  general  appli- 
cation, to  give  to  these  sounds  no  specific  representation 
unless  they  occur  as  initial  or  final  sounds.  Tliere  are  words, 
it  is  true,  in  which  these  sound-values,  even  when  not 
initial  or  final,  require  expression  ;  in  such  cases  it  is  of 
course  necessary  to  give  them  adequate  representation. 
Before  these  lessons  have  been  finished,  and  after  the  ele- 
ments  of   legibility   have   been    comprehended   and   the 


30  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

measure  of  precision  demanded  by  legibility  clearly  under- 
stood by  the  learner,  he  will  be  familiar  with  the  syllables 
and  words  in  which  this  specific  representation  is  impera- 
tive. 

The  third  character  in  the  second  outline  is  the  curve  for 
^  and  z,  shaded  io  denote  the  sound-value  represented  in 
the  ordinary  alphabet  by  the  digraph  sp,  and  lengthened  io 
indicate  the  added  sound  of/  or  d.  When  a  character  is  to  be 
lengthened,  it  should  be  written  a  little  less  than  twice  as 
long  as  its  normal  length.  This  mode  of  expressing  /  or  ^/ 
is  used  in  almost  all  the  standard  shorthand  systems  ;  it  is 
one  of  the  best  and  most  common  devices  for  obtaining 
brevity  without  a  sacrifice  of  precision,  and  is  followed  very 
generally  throughout  this  system  of  shorthand. 

The  half-circle  or  hook  representing  the  sound-value  t 
is  always  written  with  a  motion  to  the  right,  in  an  evoluie 
forward  direction  like  that  followed  by  the  hands  of  a  watch; 
whereas  the  character  for  a  (which  is  in  all  other  respects 
entirely  similar  to  that  for  short  /)  takes  the  contrary  mo- 
tion, and  is  written  always  to  the  left  in  an  involute  direc- 
tion, contra-clockwise.  Both  these  characters  when  used 
to  express  merely  the  sound-value  of  either  i  or  a,  should 
ordinarily  be  written  in  such  manner  as  to  be  joined  with- 
out making  an  angle  with  the  character  wliich  they  follow. 
As  will  be  seen  later,  these  characters  are  joined  in  such 
manner  as  to  produce  an  angle  with  both  the  preceding 
and  the  succeeding  characters,  whenever  it  is  desired  to 
give  them  the  added  sound-value  of  x  or  z. 

In  the  last   outline  given  in  the  practice-sentence    the 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  3I 

sound  d  occurs  twice,  and  in  writing  the  circle-vowel  by 
which  it  is  represented  the  learner  should  be  at  some 
pains  to  study  its  joining  with  the  preceding  and  the 
following  characters,  and  also  to  note  its  size,  which  is  the 
normal  or  standard  for  circle-vowels.  The  same  character, 
written  as  a  smaller  circle  or  as  a  larger  circle,  denotes 
different  vowel  sounds.  The  vowel  a  is  a  primordial  vowel 
of  very  frequent  occurrence,  and  its  specific  representation  is 
quite  generally  requisite ;  it  is  therefore  suitably  represented 
by  one  of  the  simplest  and  clearest  of  phonographic  char- 
acters. Two  sounds  of  the  vowel  a  (a,  short  a,  and  a,  which 
is  usually  known  as  the  Italian  a)  are  represented  by  the 
same  sign,  the  standard-size  circle ;  and  this  dual  representa- 
tion will  cause  no  difficulty  in  transcribing,  experience 
having  very  conclusively  demonstrated  that  in  English 
words  these  two  sounds  are  suggestive  of  each  other  and 
need  no  differentiation  in  method  of  representation,  as  the 
distinction  so  indicated  would  be  insignificant,  the  term 
insignificant  being  used  in  the  technical  sense  explained 
on  page  29.  The  normal  method  of  writing  circle-vowels 
(see  the  word  character  in  the  exercise-sentence  above)  is 
to  trace  them  in  an  evolute  or  clockwise  direction,  and 
when  the  circles  are  written  in  this  manner  they  represent 
their  primary  power  or  normal  sound-value.  When,  on  the 
other  hand,  these  cirtles  are  written  in  their  inverse  man- 
ner— that  is,  involutely  or  contra-clockwise — they  repre- 
sent as  an  additional  or  acquired  sound-value  the  sound  s 
or  z.  Hence  a  or  a  written  inversely  becomes  as  or  dz, 
as  or  dz,  as  will  appear  more  fully  on  a  later  page. 


32 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


EXERCISE-SENTENCE  II. 


n    o-r- 


L"  I  '/,  /'  I  'k,  a  (a),  iV  o  'm,  u  {of),  w' 
t,  k"  u  Ir,  g-'  r  a  's,  sf  a  '//  s\  the,  wi  {wi 
V,  r'  a  (T  I  '«  ^  s,  11,  e  ier  nit. 


en 
(rvhi) 


The  second   character  in  the  first  outline   represents  the 
diphthongal  sound  of  i.     This  character  is  written  as  an 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGKAFY.  33 

upward  tick,  drawn  from  left  to  right,  and  also  as  a 
downward  tick,  drawn  from  left  to  riglit,  and  whenever 
neither  of  these  two  forms  will  join  naturally  with  a  pre- 
ceding or  a  following  character,  the  sound  is  represented  by 
the  combination  of  both  these  forms,  writing  (i)  the  up- 
ward tick  from  left  to  right,  joined  (2)  at  rather  less  than  a 
right  angle  with  the  downward  tick,  the  order  of  the  two 
ticks  being  reversed  wherever  a  more  convenient  joining 
will  result  therefrom.  In  the  first  combination  the  angle 
of  juncture  of  the  ticks  will  face  downward,  in  the  second 
it  will  open  upward. 

The  standard  circle-vowel  a  is  used  to  represent  the 
article  a.  As  this  word  takes,  according  as  it  is  or  is  not 
stressed  in  the  sentence  or  phrase  or  connection  in  which 
it  is  used,  respectively  the  diphthongal  sound  of  long  a  (a) 
or  a  shortened  sound  of  Italian  a  (a),  the  representation  of 
it  given  here  is,  of  course,  not  phonetic.  The  same  thing 
is  true  in  a  more  manifest  manner  of  the  downward  tick 
which  is  used  to  represent  the  article  if/ie.  In  this  system, 
and  in  perhaps  every  one  of  the  scores  of  shorthand  systems 
that  the  author  has  examined,  the  representation  of  either 
or  both  of  the  sounds  of  each  of  the  words  a  and  f/ie,  to- 
gether the  most  frequently  used  words  in  the  language,  is 
unphonetic  and  even  arbitrary;  and  this  fact,  along  with 
others  of  like  import,  pretty  effectually  bars  all  the  socalled 
phonographies  from  the  right  of  claiming  to  be  strictly 
phonetic.  Shorthand,  however,  is  primarily  and  profes- 
sedly a  matter  of  expediency,  of  practicability  ;  and  expedi- 
ency and  practicability,  so  far  from  demanding  at  all  time, 

3 


34  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

an  absolute  phoneticism  in  character  and  outline,  depend 
in  a  large  measureon  judicious  departures  from  an  exclusive 
and  encumbering  compliance  with  the  theories  of  phonog- 
raphy, and  on  an  advantageous  recourse  at  times  to  the 
best  expedients  of  stenography.  A  wisely  discerning  union 
of  the  sound  in  principle  and  the  valuable  in  practice,  with 
little  question  of  whence  or  how  it  comes,  is  and  must  be 
the  first  and  the  last  requisite,  the  prime  and  the  ultimate 
desideratum  of  shorthand  perfection.  All  the  writers  of 
phonography  admit  into  their  shorthand  script  many  of  the 
devices  of  stenography;  yet  not  one  of  the  authors  of  the 
phonographies  appears  willing  to  profess  that  his  style  of 
writing  is,  as  this  system  by  its  name  professes  to  be,  de- 
pendent in  some  measure  for  its  composition  and  practice 
on  both  phonography  and  stenography. 

Tlie  character  used  to  represent  of  is  one  of  a  class  of 
outlines  known  in  shortwritingas  wordsigns.  For  the  pur- 
poses of  shorthand  it  is  necessary  that  words  should  be 
written  in  the  briefest  and  most  contracted  form  consistent 
with  graphic  facility  and  phonetic  symbolism  ;  in  other 
words,  the  outlines  should  accord  with  the  rules  of  writing- 
movement  and  should  express  plainly  the  x//-^//^  and  the 
significant  elements  of  the  sounds  uttered.  But  there  are 
certain  words,  roughly  estimated  to  be  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  in  number,  that  are  of  so  frequent  occurrence  as  to 
form  more  than  one-half  of  all  the  terms  found  in  an  average 
paragraph  or  on  an  ordinary  page.  Such  words,  it  is  clear, 
should  have  an  especially  brief  outline  for  their  representa- 
tion, and  consequently  the  signs  by  which  they  are  repre- 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  35 

sented  are  contracted  to  the  utmost  limits  that  a  logical 
application  of  the  principles  of  shorthand  will  allow.  These 
contracted  outlines  are  known  technically  as  wordsigns, 
which  term,  however,  since  it  applies  in  a  general  way  to  all 
written  words  (all  written  words  are  \sox^signs),  is  hardly 
as  distinctive  an  appellation  as  might  be  found.  The  terms 
logogram  and  grammalog  are  derived  from  the  Greek  equiv- 
alents of  jvordsign  and  signword,  and  are  used  by  some  au- 
thors, the  former  term  being  applied  to  the  shorthand  outline 
and  the  latter  to  the  longhand  word.  The  outline  for  each 
wordsign  gives  ordinarily  one  or  two  of  the  most  significant 
sounds  in  the  word  for  which  it  stands.  The  principles 
upon  which  the  wordsign  contractions  are  based  are  de- 
duced from  many  considerations,  the  most  weighty  of  which 
are  (i)  that  the  characters  used  to  represent  a  grammalog 
should  possess  a  facile  form  for  writing,  and  (2)  that  the 
logogram  should  be  such  an  outline  as  has  a  strong  signifi- 
cance or  power  of  self-determination  and  self-distinction. 

Whenever  the  learner  meets  a  wordsign  in  his  exercise- 
sentences  he  should  be  at  pains  to  practice  writing  it  with 
more  than  ordinary  diligence  ;  such  an  outline  should  never 
be  passed  over  until  the  student  has  mastered  its  meaning 
and  given  it  by  repeated  copying  a  permanent  place  in  his 
memory.  To  write  each  of  the  wordsigns  as  they  occur  in 
the  practice-sentences  from  one  hundred  to  five  hundred 
times,  will  be  found  to  be  profitable  practice  and  by  no 
means  excessive  repetition. 

Final  /  or  d  is  very  frequently  omitted,  especially  where, 
as  in  the  word  above   {colored^,  it   follows  a  half-length 


36  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

stroke  or  curve  representing  the  added  sound-value  of  r. 
(The  cliaracter  for  en  and  the  half-length  /are  similar  in 
form,  but  no  confusion  will  arise  out  of  this  likeness.) 

The  combination  in  sound  of  the  coalescent  semi-vowel 
■w  (or  00)  and  the  diphthong  i  {ai^,  is  represented  by  the 
double  tick  /*,  with  its  angle  facing,  like  the  curve  for  w, 
to  the  right. 

Whenever  we  have  two  successive  vowel  sounds,  each  of 
which  is  short  and  unaccented  (as  m  in  radiance),  the  first 
is  expressed,  the  second  omitted,  the  vowel  sound  which 
has  the  smaller  content  of  significance  (namely,  in  this 
instance,  the  i^)  yielding  place  to  tlie  sound  with  the  higher 
power  for  word-determination  and  a  larger  value  from  the 
standpoint  of  legibility;  if,  however,  one  of  the  vowel 
sounds  is  an  accented  syllable  or  sound,  this  accented 
vowel  should  of  course  be  expressed  in  preference  to  the 
weak  or  unaccented  vowel  sound. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFV.  37 

EXERCISE-SENTENCE  III. 


7  ^^^ 

Ox      n  /   ,      3,0    ^ V    ,   _,    o  , 

I  <^X  -^ .  r^  /^,  /, 

)  ^,     o    ^    ,      /,     /.— 

■    I  ' t,  I  (is),  a    s,  <:[r   (q-re'it),  a,  f  oi  ^  fit,  u 
7c'    ts  d*  iiin,  t  {Jo),  /e'  /  '<■/,  i  V   ;/'   r'   «   '« 
'j',  ii  's,  t,  d'  ts  c'   iivr,  ii  b  T  e'^. 


In  studying  the  first  outline  in  this  lesson  the  learner 
should  devote  especial  attention  to  the  direction  and  mode 
of  joining,  followed  by  the  hook  whose  sound-value  is  i. 

This  sign,  when  initial,  is  always  to  be  combined  with 
the  succeeding  character  in  such  manner  as  will  allow  the 

449503 


38  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

hook  to  be  traced  in  an  outward,  forward,  and  evolute 
direction.  As  will  appear  from  a  consideration  of  the 
fonostenografic  signs  for  //  and  ignorance,  the  hook,  written 
in  compliance  with  this  rule,  is  placed  on  the  left  side  of 
upright  characters  and  on  the  lower  side  of  horizontal 
strokes. 

Another  rule  to  be  observed  in  connection  with  the 
juncture  of  this  hook  is  that  when  it  is  used,  initially  and 
finally,  to  represent  its  normal  value  (J)  it  is  joined  in 
such  manner  as  not  to  produce  an  angle;  medially,  it  is 
so  joined  as  to  necessitate  only  one  angle,  the  angle  of 
juncture  between  the  hook  and  the  succeeding  character ; 
but  to  express  its  added  sound  value  {is,  iz),  it  is  generally 
joined  in  such  manner  as  to  produce,  initially  and  finally, 
one  angle,  and  medially,  /a/^  angles,  as  is  exemplified  above 
in  the  words  wisdom  and  discover. 

It  should  be  noted  that  when  the  character  which  repre- 
sents a  is  so  joined  as  to  indicate  the  addition  of  s  or  z, 
the  hook  .always  faces  the  right,  while  the  /-liook,  under 
like  conditions,  always  opens  on  the  left. 

The  second,  fourth,  and  ninth  outlines  in  the  practice- 
sentence  are  the  wordsigns  representing  respectively  is, 
great,  and  to,  these  words  being  always  written  in  this 
manner. 

The  character  used  to  represent  the  diphthong  oi  (sixth 
outline)  is  a  combination  formed  of  a  circle  (<?)  and  a  half- 
circle  (/),  the  latter  being  written  outside  oi  the  former; 
the  sign  whose  sound-value  is  ou  is  a  combination  of  the 
same  simple  characters,  with  the  half-circle  written  within 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  39 

the  circle.  Both  these  compound  characters  {oi  and  oii) 
should,  whereever  the  joining  will  allow,  be  traced,  like 
the  circle  and  half-circle  of  which  they  are  composed,  in 
the  normal  forward  or  evolute  direction,  the  direction  fol- 
lowed in  tracing  o^  Both  are  doubled,  i.  e.,  written  some- 
what smaller  than  twice  their  normal  size,  to  represent 
the  added  sound  of  /  or  d. 

The  character  designed  to  signify  the  aspirate  h  is  a 
thickened  tick.  This  tick  should  be  given  about  half  the 
length  of  a  half-length  v,  and  should  be  traced  downward 
from  left  to  right.  Sometimes,  however,  for  the  sake  of  a 
more  facile  and  distinctive  joining,  the  A-tick  is  written 
downward  from  right  to  left,  being  then  the  same  character 
in  a[)pearance  as  a  quarter-length  d,  were  such  a  stroke 
used.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  specific  representation  of 
this  aspirate  may,  as  a  rule,  be  entirely  omitted  before  an 
expressed  vowel  (<?.  g.,  in  had,  half,  behold,  behave,  mis- 
hap, perhaps),  since  the  representation  of  this  succeeding 
vowel  is  all  that  is  demanded  by  the  requirement  of  legi- 
bility. For  example,  if,  in  the  outline  for  hide,  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  aspirate  h  were  omitted  altogether,  the 
fonostenografic  sign  could  not  possibly  be  taken  for  any 
verb  in  the  language  other  than  that  which  it  is  used  to 
signify. 

In  the  outline  for  the  word  ignorance  the  character  for 
n  is  written  full-length  and  the  stroke  r  inserted,  for  the 
reason,  as  the  reader  will  perceive,  that  the  half-length  « 
would  not  here  join  so  facilely  and  distinctively  as  the  full- 
length  sign.  • 


40  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

EXERCISE-SENTENCE  IV. 


CL  X 

o    9 

-;1/V 

1 

? 

"^  =  ^ ' 

r. 

r\  (yr-  D  ^  ^    ^.^    ( 

^ , 

~  o-f  \^ 

^, 

c      tyt- 

0/     ut-'^^i^  &j^  ^/^n^  x^^-^-iy)  * 

A,y' 

ung,  ;«' 

a  ^n  's,  a  mb'  tsh 

tin,  t\ 

a  fa 

'«,  e  nC 

z«  <?///,  sf  a  ^  nd  zng,  t  n,  i, 

Ch'     0 

s'  en. 

r  -e  V, 

u,   en  rt"   evr,    i,  w'   un, 

th'  a 

{that, 

wordsign),  z,  JC 

d  r  I,  r  au  (T  dbl. 

Only  the  characters  wliich  tlie  learner  comes  now  to  use 
for  the  first  time  are  in  this  fourth  lesson  separated  from 
tlie  outlines  of  which  they  form  a  part.  The  first  of  these 
new  signs  is  the  large  hook  employed  to  represent  the 
sound  of  consonant  y  before  a  consonant  stem.  This 
method  of  representing  y  is  made  use  of  only  when  the 
sound  is  initial  in  a  word  (sometimes,  but  infrequently, 
when  it  is  initial  in  a  syllable,  as  in  brilliant'),  and  when  it 
immediately  precedes  e,  i,  and  //,  when  these  sounds  are 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  41 

not  specifically  represented,  as,  e.  ^.,  in  yes,  yet,  yellow. 
In  all  other  words  in  which  the  sound  of  consonant  y  is  to 
be  indicated,  it  is  represented  by  the  stem-jj^.  Care  should 
be  taken  to  make  the  jF-hook  large  enough  to  distinguish 
it  from  the  small  hook  of  the  same  kind,  which  is  used 
to  signify  the  sound  of  short  /.  The  same  rules  that  gov- 
ern the  joining  of  the  initial  z-hook  apply  likewise  to  the 
larger  )'-hook. 

The  sign  for  the  consonant  n  is  shaded  to  represent  the 
sound-value  ng  {ettg,  I'no,  ung),  and  this  shaded  character 
is  halved  and  doubled  to  represent  respectively  the  added 
sounds  of  r  and  of  /  or  d.  So,  in  like  manner,  the  sign 
which  signifies  m  is  shaded  to  represent  ml>  and  ;;//,  and, 
when  so  shaded,  is  halved  to  indicate  fndr  and  mpr  (as  in 
member  and  temper'),  and  doubled  to  represent  7nbt  or  mpt, 
and  mbd  ox  t/ipd  (as  in  gambit,  'stamped,  etc.) 

'J'he  small  half-ellipse  facing  upward  to  the  right  and 
traced  downward  from  left  to  right,  is  used  to  represent 
that  combination  of  sounds  which  is  usually  designated  in 
the  ordinary  alphabet  as  un.  This  sound-combination  is 
of  very  frequent  occurrence  and  requires  a  brief  method  of 
representation,  such  as  is  afforded  by  the  half-ellipse  char- 
acter. The  reverse  half  of  a  like  ellipse  is  employed  to  in- 
dicate en,  which  sound-combination  also  requires  an  espe- 
cially brief  symbol.  These  half-ellipse  signs  for  en  and  ////, 
tho  identical  in  appearance  with  the  half-lengths  of  tlie  stems 
/and  ch,  do  not  in  practice  in  any  wise  conflict  with  the 
latter  characters.  Tiie  primary  phonetic  principle  that  a 
single  sign  should  represent  only  a  single  sound,  is  an  ex- 


42  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

ceedingly  good  principle — which  all  practical  shorthand 
systems  judiciously  violate. 

The  light  tick  used  to  indicate  ^is  to  be  traced  as  a  hori- 
zontal stroke  when  the  joining  will  allow  ;  in  other  cases 
it  is  written  vertically.  Note  that  in  the  word  eminent 
there  are  three  short  vowels  (<?,  i,  and  e),  and  that  only  the 
first  is  given  specific  representation,  the  initial  syllable  being 
the  strong  (J.  e.,  accented)  and  significant  \)^xi  of  the  word- 
sound,  and  requiring  therefore  complete  and  specific  repre- 
sentation. The  learner  should  very  early  in  his  shorthand 
practice  accustom  himself  to  observing  the  strong  and  sig- 
nificant syllable  or  syllables  of  each  word  that  he  writes. 
His  ability  to  decide  immediately  and  intuitively  on  this 
element  in  the  word  will  be  of  great  service  to  him  when 
he  comes  to  apply  in  his  reporting  practice  the  most  im- 
portant principle  of  contraction  and  brevity  in  this  system, 
the  principle  of  the  fonostenografic  root — a  principle  which, 
comprehensively  conceived  and  consistently  applied,  as  in 
this  method  of  phonography,  is  an  entirely  original  feature 
in  stenographic  writing.  The  application  of  the  principle 
of  the  fonostenografic  root  affords  to  this  legible,  vocalized 
system  the  same  measure  of  brevity  as  is  found  in  the  illegi- 
ble, unvocalized  Pitmanic  methods  of  phonography. 

The  student  should  note  the  manner  in  which  the  circle 
vowel  o,  occurring  between  the  curved  stems  for  ch  and  s, 
is  made  to  keep  the  same  position  as  that  which  it  would 
take  if  final  after  M  or  initial  before  j.  Whenever  possible 
a  circle  vowel  between  two  curved  strokes  should  always  be 
so  drawn  as  to  maintain   its   normal  position   {within  the 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  43 

curved  stem)  with  respect  to  both  the  preceding  and  the 
succeeding  characters. 

A  small  initial  hook  (similar  to  the  a-hook)  is  used  in 
connection  with  the  half-ellipse  signs  en  and  un  for  the 
purpose  of  representing  consonant  w,  as  in  went,  Wednes- 
day, won,  once. 

As  an  exception  to  the  general  rule  of  omitting  the  as- 
pirate-tick before  an  expressed  vowel,  the  sound  h  is  given 
specific  representation  in  the  words  whole  and  wholly  (see 
outline  in  the  exercise-sentence),  in  order  to  distinguish 
these  words  respectively  from  the  outline  for  old  and  the 
wordsign  for  only.  The  thoughtful  learner  may  think  on 
first  consideration  that  the  full  outline  for  only,  written 
with  the  /v-hook  (illustrated  in  lesson  v),  would  be  quite  as 
brief  as  this  more  arbitrary  form,  the  wordsign  outline;  it 
must  be  remembered,  however,  that  the  form  here  chosen 
allows  the  use  of  the  forward-direction  forward  movement, 
which  is  much  more  conducive  to  speedy  writing  than  the 
backward  direction  of  the  same  movement. 

The  shaded  stem  representing  the  sound  b  is  used  finally 
(in  the  numerous  class  of  such  words  as  admirable,  consid- 
ej'able,  credible,  suiiable,  voluble')  to  indicate  the  suffix  ble, 
able,  ible,  uble,  the  /being  omitted. 


44  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

EXERCISE-SENTENCE  V. 


The  first  sign  in  this  exercise  affords  an  example  of  the 
frequent  omission  (generally  in  unaccented  syllables)  of  the 
sign  for  the  sound  k  before  the  sound  s  or  z,  and  sh  or  zh, 
as  in  the  words  accept,  access,  luxuriant,  proximate. 

The  next  outline,  consisting  of  the  wordsigns  for  /;/  and 
the,  is  an  illustration  of  shortliand  phrasing.  The  prin- 
ciples and  practice  of  phrasing  will  be  explained  more  fully 
on  a  later  page  of  this  manual.  Here  it  will  suffice  to  say 
that  all  such  simple  and  common  longhand  phrases  as  in 
the,  to  the,  of  the,  it  is,  it  will  be,  of  our,  should,  for  the  sake 
of  speedier  execution,  be  written  as  a  single  fonostenografic 
outline,  the  pen  being  neither  raised  nor  stopped  while  the 
outline  is  being  traced.  At  this  point  in  the  learner's 
progress  the  only  method  of  phrase-writing  that  is  recom- 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  45 

mended  to  him  for  practice  is  that  which  lias  been  called 
simple phraseography.  This  kind  of  phrase-writing  consists 
merely  in  joining  together,  without  any  departure  from  the 
form  of  the  outlines  as  written  separately,  the  fonosteno- 
grafic  characters  of  the  words  to  be  phrased.  The  other 
method  of  phrasing,  which  we  will  term  advanced  phrase- 
oj^raphy,  will  be  developed  fully  in  a  subsequent  portion  of 
this  text-book. 

The  final  large  hook  in  the  first  sign  on  the  second  line 
of  this  lesson  represents  the  adverbial  termination  ly.  This 
/j'-hook  is  joined  only  to  full-length  stems.  In  other  cases 
final  ly  is  indicated  by  the  /-stem,  as  in  the  words  greatly 
and  certainly,  in  which  logograms  the  stem  /  is  added  to  the 
wordsign  half-length  characters. 

The  sounds  ktu  and  gw  are  represented  by  the  double- 
length  k  and  g  strokes,  the  stroke  for  kw  being  the  same  as 
that  for  kt  or  kd,  and  the  character  for  gw  being  identical 
with  that  for  gt  or  gd.  This  identity  of  strokes  for  diverse 
sounds  will  not  be  found  to  lead  to  illegibility.  If,  how- 
ever, it  becomes  at  any  time  essential  to  distinguish  the  one 
set  of  sound-values  (/e7a  and  gw)  from  the  other  (^t,  kd,  and 
gt,  gd),  this  may  readily  be  accomplished  by  representing 
either  or  both  by  the  two  separate  full  stems. 

The  second  last  character  on  the  second  line  of  the  en- 
graved lesson  above  is  intended  to  represent  a  double-length 
sh.  In  such  words  as  should,  could,  ivould,  and  good,  the 
sound  00  (the  short  sound  of  the  long  oo  '\\\  shoot,  cooed, 
wooed)  is  not  provided  with  a  specific  symbol,  the  conso- 
nant being  doubled  to  represent  tlie  word.  It  is  scarcely 
ever  necessary  to  give  this  short  sound  of  oo  specific  repre- 


46  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

sentation ;  but,  should  it  become  essential  to  afford  the 
sound  such  a  representation,  it  may  be  done  by  writing  the 
stem  for  long  oo,  with  a  light  tick  (the  forward,  upward 
/-tick)  drawn  through  it. 

The  last  outline  in  the  first  sentence  is  also  very  imper- 
fectly written.  The  final  character  in  the  outline  is  the 
stem  for  consonant  j',  halved  to  represent  an  added  r  sound. 
This  7-stem  is  always  traced  downward,  save  in  the  few 
words  (such  as  Yale)  in  which  the  down-stroke  will  not 
afford  a  facile  joining;  in  such  cases  the  sign  is  traced  up- 
ward. It  will  be  observed  that  this  stem  is  identical,  ex- 
cept in  direction  of  writing,  with  the  sign  for  the  compound 
vowel  sound  u. 

The  dot  written  just  below  the  end  of  the  V-stroke  (the 
wordsign  for  have)  is  employed  to  represent  final  ing,  the 
sign  of  the  present  participle.  This  dot  is  used  to  repre- 
sent the  sound  ing  only  when  that  sound  forms  a  complete 
syllable  in  itself;  e.  g.,  in  the  word  singing  the  final  syllable 
is  represented  by  the  ing-dot,  but  the  initial  syllable  {sing) 
is  symbolized  by  the  stroke  for  s,  the  hook  for  /,  and  the 
curved  stem  for  ng. 

In  the  fonostenografic  signs  for  the  words  peers  and 
betters,  the  stroke  for  r  is  doubled  to  indicate  the  added 
sound  of  s.  As  the  difference  between  the  singular  and 
the  plural  number  is  in  many  terms  a  vital  one,  the  writer 
should  be  careful  to  make  the  distinction  between  the 
stroke-A-  and  the  stroke-ri  so  strongly  marked  by  the  use  of 
the  single-length  stem  for  the  former,  and  the  double-length 
stem  for  the  latter,  that  words  in  the  singular  will  never 
conflict  with  the  same  words  in  the  plural  number. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  47 

WORDSIGNS. 


EXERCISE  VI. 


^  %  '^ -  I  _^  ^  1^ 


?      ■^l„s-.. 


4S  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFV. 

SIGNWORDS. 

(Exercise  VI.) 

Abound,  bound,  and  about  (the  same  outline  being  used  to 
represent  tliese  three  words;  the  ^//-sign,  however,  should 
be  doubled  in  about  to  indicate  the  added  /);  after  and 
afternoon;  a^ed  ^.nd.  agent;  again  and  against;  be,  been, 
and  by ;  across ;  before ;  by,  be,  and  been;  certain  and  con- 
r^/'//-///^'- (the  double  termination  cern-iug  indicates  that  the 
wordsign  stands  for  both  concern  and  concerning') ;  char- 
acter; commit  and  committee  ;  common  ;  concern  ing  diwd  cer- 
tain ;  contrary;  difficult-y ;  do;  each;  either;  example-d ; 
experience-d ;  for ;  from  (also  confer-red  and  preferred')  ; 
fu>nish-ed ;  general 2LY\di  gentle  ;  gentleman  ;  gentlemen  ;  go?'- 
ern-ed ;  he ;  is  and  his ;  important  and  report;  language ; 
manufacture-d  r ;  material;  me,  my,  and  much;  mighty; 
most  and  motion  ;  Air.  and  mercy  ;  much,  me,  and  my;  native 
^.nd  nature-d ;  necessary;  neither;  next  a.wd  connect ;  noth- 
ing; only ;  opinion ;  our  (small  <?«-sign)  and  out  (large  ou- 
sign)  ;  principal-le-led ;  public-lish  ;  purpose- d ;  question-ed 
and  request;  quiet  and  quite;  reference;  relation;  satis- 
faction-ory ;  satisfy -led ;  service,  reserve,  and  survey  (the 
noun,  not  the  verb);  several;  shall;  simile-ar  (^s  i  7np  ^= 
simple  and  sympathy);  society;  subject  (tlie  adjective  and 
noun,  but  not  the  verb)  ;  such  and  7i.ias  ;  sufficient ;  their  and 
there ;  they,  them,  and  think ;  these ;  think,  they,  and  them; 
thing ;  this  ;  those  ;  time-d ;  together  ;  up  ;  upon  ;  very  ;  was 
?i\\6.  such  ;  we;  Tuhat ;  woman;  7vomen. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGKAFY.  49 

The  above  list  of  fonostenografic  outlines  (wordsigns) 
and  longhand  equivalents  (signwords)  includes  nearly  all 
of  such  terms  as  make  up,  together  with  the  few  given  in 
earlier  lessons,  the  whole  number  of  those  words  which,  as 
has  already  been  explained,  require  special  abbreviation  on 
account  of  their  frequent  occurrence  in  written  and  spoken 
English,  and  on  account  of  the  lengthiness  of  their  outlines 
when  written  fully;  but,  although  these  words  are  listed 
separately  and  designated  as  wordsigns,  they  are  almost  all 
of  them  contracted  m  accordance  with  the  regular  prin- 
ciples of  this  system,  as  will  appear  subsequently,  very  few 
of  them,  indeed,  being  arbitrary  forms.  They  have  been 
presented  here,  however,  as  wordsigns  because  they  are  such 
terms  as  it  is  essential  in  any  case  to  contract;  if  the  short- 
hand system  did  not  admit  of  their  being  regularly  con- 
tracted, then  the  requirements  of  reporting  speed  would 
demand  that  they  be  arbitrarily  abbreviated.  There  are, 
however,  many  words  of  very  frequent  use  which,  because 
their  full  outline  is  sufficiently  brief  for  all  the  purposes  of 
shorthand,  do  not  require  to  be  represented  by  wordsigns. 
Among  the  terms  of  this  class  may  be  mentioned  can,  will, 
?nay,  and  must ;  could,  should,  and  would  (represented  by 
single  double-length  strokes);  am  and  are;  how,  when, 
who,  and  why  ;  with  a  number  of  others  of  more  or  less  con- 
stant recurrence. 

The  wordsigns  should  be  written  and  rewritten  until  they 

are  so  thoroughly  mastered  that  the  learner  can  trace  them 

about  four  times  as  rapidly  as  he  can  write  their  longhand 

equivalents.     Perhaps  the  most  expeditious  manner  of  mas- 

4 


50  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

tering  the  wordsigns  is  to  study  them  one  at  a  time  until 
about  a  dozen  of  them  have  been  learned,  and  then  to  write 
and  repeat  this  dozen  as  a  group  so  frequently  as  to  give 
each  wordsign  a  permanent  place  in  one's  memory.  Pass- 
ing, then,  from  the  first  twelve,  the  student  should  take  up 
another  dozen  in  the  same  manner  :  the  two  groups  may 
afterward  be  combined  and  the  whole  twenty-four  signs 
written  consecutively.  In  this  way  the  entire  list  may  be 
readily  learned  and  a  permanent  command  of  every  word- 
sign  obtained. 

The  wordsign  outlines  should  be  used  as  roots  in  the  for- 
mation of  such  fonostenografic  derivatives  as  rt/?^/'wards, 
by-\S2iy,  ceriainXy,  character'\%\\c  and  charactenzii,  covwion- 
place,  and  a  number  of  others.  The  learner  should  note, 
however,  that  the  wordsigns  are  not  susceptible  of  such 
modifications  of  their  outlines  as  would  result  from  an  ap- 
plication to  them  of  the  principles  of  halving  and  doubling; 
the  added  sounds  r  and  ^/and  /  are  therefore  represented  in 
wordsign  forms  by  their  full  stems.  The  ///^-dot  principle, 
however,  should  be  employed  wherever  an  /«^-sound  is  to 
be  indicated,  as,  e.  g. ,  in  be-ing,  do-ing,  fumish-tng.  A  spe- 
cial reason  for  the  apjilication  of  this  principle  to  the  word- 
signs  is  that  the  /«^-dot  addition  modifies  the  general  ap- 
pearance of  the  outlines  and  impairs  their  legibility  less 
than  the  addition  of  the  ing-sitiw.  In  view  of  the  necessity 
of  legibility  in  shorthand,  the  wordsigns,  owing  to  their 
being  more  or  less  abbreviated,  have  to  be  treated  as  con- 
stants of  fixed  and  invariable  form. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  5 1 

The  wordsigns  may,  nevertheless,  be  written  in  phrases, 
if  care  be  taken  to  preserve  the  ordinary  forms  of  the  com- 
ponent wordsign  outlines.  It  shonld  be  remembered  that, 
on  the  one  hand,  many  words  which  are  written  fully  when 
standing  alone,  may  be  abbreviated  when  they  become  part 
of  certain  phraseograms,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  when  a 
wordsign  enters  into  the  composition  of  a  phrase-sign  the 
outline  of  the  former  always  retains  its  integrity  and  is  not 
to  be  further  abbreviated,  such  abbreviation  being  liable  to 
result  in  loss  of  legibility. 


EXERCISE 

IN   THE 

USE  OF  THE  WORDSIGNS. 

(Exercise-Sentences  VII.) 

The  student's  attention  is  directed  to  the  fact  that  the 
same  shorthand  form  that  represents  a  verb  in  the  present 
tense,  may  (after  the  auxiliaries  am,  have,  or  was,  etc.)  be 
used  generally  to  indicate  the  past  participle  of  the  verb. 
"Are  satisfy,"  "has  be,"  "was  give,"  "  is  confine,"  can 
of  course  mean  only  are  satisfied,  has  been,  etc. 

Whenever  it  is  convenient  to  do  so,  the  /V/§--dot,  instead 
of  being  supplied  by  the  dot  itself,  is  indicated  by  position, 
/.  e.,  by  beginning  the  word  following  the  outline  contain- 
ing the  ///"--sound  at  the  same  point  as  that  at  which  the 
ing-d.o\.  itself  would  have  been  placed  were  it  employed; 
in  other  words,  instead  of  writing  the  ing-^oX.  in  position, 


52  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

you  omit  it  altogether  and  begin  the  next  outline  in  the 
//?^-dot  place. 

The  stroke  e  is  used  (see  first  character  on  line  4)  to  ex- 
press the  prefix  ex,  and  the  combined  strokes  s  and  /  repre- 
sent the  affix  self  and  selves  (see  second  outline).  To  let 
the  student  learn  the  most  numerous  and  useful  prefixes 
and  suffixes  by  taking  them  up  singly  here  and  there  as  he 
encounters  them  in  his  practice-sentences,  has  been  deemed 
more  judicious  than  for  the  author  to  set  them  all  forth  in 
one  or  two  lessons,  to  be  mastered  in  their  entirety — a  pro- 
cess of  shorthand  acquisition  which  is  at  once  tedious  and 
time-losing,  as  well  as  opposed  to  the  natural  method  of 
learning  to  speak  or  to  write. 

Note  that,  in  the  second  outline  on  the  seventh  line  of 
the  present  exercise,  the  stem  u  is  halved  to  indicate  an 
added  s  (or  z)  and  not  an  added  r,  the  representation  of /- 
after  u  always  being  by  means  of  the  stem  r.  The  doubling 
of  this  stem,  it  sliould  also  be  explained  here,  does  not  in- 
dicate the  addition  of  d  or  /,  but  of  /,  the  t  ox  d  being  in 
tliis  case  expressed  by  the  stem -character.  The  reason  for 
this  variation  from  the  general  rule  arises  out  of  the  fact 
that  the  stem  u  does  not,  on  the  one  hand,  join  easily  with 
/or  s,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  it  joins  very  well  with  r, 
/,  and  d.  The  same  outline  affords  an  illustration  of  the 
use  of  the  stroke  /  to  represent  the  suffix  ////  in  all  such 
words  as  beautiful,  hopeful,  handful,  etc. 

The  student  should  give  careful  consideration  to  the  two 
illustrations  (in  the  words  Cleveland  and  convene,  on  the 
second  engraved  page  of  this  exercise)  of  a  method  of  rep- 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


53 


EXERCISE-SENTENCES  VII. 


^_^       /    ^^-^    <      a — b    y ^—^ 


54  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFV. 

resenting  e,  which  he  has  not  previously  had  occasion  to 
learn.  Long  e  is  a  sound  of  very  frequent  occurrence  and, 
being  nearly  always  a  strong  and  significant  element  in  the 
syllable  or  the  word,  requires  constant  specific  representa- 
tion. It  has,  therefore,  been  found  necessary  to  give  it  as 
facile  and  brief  a  sign  as  possible.  In  a  very  large  major- 
ity of  all  the  fonostenografic  outlines  in  which  short  i  oc- 
curs 7nedially,  the  hook,  it  was  observed,  could  be  joined 
in  two  ways — either  (i)  to  the  first  stem,  or  (2)  to  the  fol- 
lowing stem.  So,  for  the  purpose  of  economizing  the 
shorthand  material,  an  economy  which  all  capable  short- 
hand systems  have  to  carry  to  the  highest  degree  of  perfec- 
tion, the  principle  was  established  of  limiting  the  joining 
of  the  hook  in  the  first  manner  to  the  expression  of  short  /. 
and  the  joining  of  the  hook  in  the  second  way  to  the  sym- 
bolization  of  long  e.  This  distinction  preserves  perfect 
legibility  and,  by  eliminating  one  of  the  angles  in  the 
character  representing  long  e,  and  by  changing  that  sign 
from  a  half-circle  into  a  hook,  makes  for  brevity  and  speed. 
Long  e  and  short  /',  then,  when  they  occur  between  two 
stems  (as  in  bin  and  bean,  din  and  dean,  //z^^and  leave,  rick 
and  reek,  sin  and  seen,  lit  and  leet,  slip  and  sleep,  and  in  a 
thousand  other  words),  are  represented  not  by  two  differ- 
ent hooks,  but  by  the  same  hook  attached  in  different  ways, 
the  hook  for  'i  being  joined  without  2M  angle  to  the  first  of 
the  two  stems,  and  7vith  an  angle  to  the  second,  and  the 
hook  for  e  being  joined  7vith  an  angle  to  the  first  stem  and 
without  an  angle  to  the  second. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


55 


EXERCISE-SENTENCES  VII— Continued. 


/O 


">> 


c/y    ^^c 


/ 

J  7^1 . 


56  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

When  the  student  of  Fonostenografy  has  mastered  all  the 
principles  and  characters  that  have  been  presented  in  the 
foregoing  lessons,  and  has  by  diligent  application  acquired 
a  complete  command  of  so  much  of  the  method  as  is  set 
forth  in  this  first  part  of  the  manual,  he  will  be  able,  on 
accustoming  himself  to  the  use  of  the  system  in  taking  down 
dictated  matter,  to  write  with  a  far  higher  degree  of  rapidity 
than  that  of  which  longhand  script  is  capable ;  but,  in  order 
to  acquire  the  ability  to  write  as  expeditiously  as  amanu- 
ensis and  reporting  work  demands,  the  learner  needs  to 
master  every  principle  of  contraction  and  every  device  of 
abbreviation  supplied  by  this  system.  These  principles  and 
devices  will  be  amply  set  forth  in  the  subsequent  lessons  of 
the  complete  textbook. 


The  author  of  American  Fonostenografy  (who  may  be 
addressed  at  the  Adams  building,  Washington,  D.  C.)  will 
gladly  furnish  any  further  information  respecting  the  system 
of  shorthand  here  presented,  will  answer  inquiries  concern- 
ing methods  of  study,  and  will  be  pleased  to  review  tran- 
scripts of  the  shorthand  matter  given  on  pages  53  and  55. 

Instruction  by  mail,  either  in  complete  courses  or  in 
single  correspondence  lessons,  will  be  given  by  the  author 
at  the  regular  prices  per  lesson  or  per  course. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  57 

WRITING   MOVEMENT    AND    DIRECTION 
IN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


All  the  standard  systems  of  English  and  American  short- 
hand are  geometric  and,  to  a  degree,  photietic — that  is,  they 
employ  characters  composed  of  right  lines  and  curves  de- 
rived from  geometric  figures,  to  represent  sounds  or  phonetic 
elements.  The  primary  conditions  of  geometric  shorthand 
writing  grow  out  of  the  reciprocal  relations  of  the  center  of 
the  writing  to  the  radii  and  circumferences,  the  chords  and 
arcs  of  that  center.  In  shorthand  the  center  of  the  writing, 
around  which  or  from  which  all  the  characters  are  traced,  is 
ever  changing  with  respect  to  the  point  on  the  line  from 
which  the  writing  was  begun  ;  but  the  relations  of  all  the 
characters  to  the  center  are  fixed  and  do  not  vary — /.  e.,  no 
matter  where  the  center  of  writing  may  be,  the  various 
strokes,  as  long  as  they  retain  their  normal  values  and  are 
governed  by  the  ordinary  conditions,  retain  also  their  rela- 
tions (the  relations  of  form  and  direction)  to  the  center. 
The  basic  factor,  then,  in  shorthand  script  is  the  writing 
center.  This  center  is  always  undergoing  change  and  is 
ever  being  moved ;  and  whenever  it  is  so  changed  as  to  be 
advanced  a.\ong  the  line  of  writing — that  is,  when  it  is  car- 
ried forward  and  not  backward — its  influence  on  the  attain- 
ment  of  speed  in  the  writing  is  at  the  highest.  That  the 
forward  movement  in  writing  is  faster  than  any  other,  is 
5 


58  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

indeed  axiomatic.  The  first  principle,  then,  of  fonosteno- 
grafic  writing — the  principle  of  viovevient — may  be  stated 
thus  :  The  center  of  writing  should  be  carried  forward  as 
constantly  as  possible,  and  should  tend  backward  no  more 
than  is  absolutely  necessary.  The  writing  will  then  pro- 
gress steadily  to  the  end  of  the  line,  without  unnecessary 
and  speed-hindering  reversion  toward  the  beginning  of  the 
line.  A  striking  example  of  this  tendency  to  revert  toward 
the  point  of  beginning  the  writing,  instead  of  more  per- 
sistently advancing  in  a  straightforward  direction,  arises" 
out  of  the  principle  of  insertion  found  in  all  the  Pitmanic 
methods,  the  consonant  outline  being  traced  first  and  then 
the  center  of  writing  reverted  for  the  purpose  of  inserting 
the  necessary  vowels.  This  endeavor  to  move  backward 
and  forward  alternately  is  necessarily  subversive  of  speed ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  general  omission  of  vowel 
representation  is  destructive  of  legibility. 

The  second  factor  in  fonostenografic  writing  is  the  rela- 
tion of  the  center  of  the  writing,  not  to  the  line  along  which 
it  moves,  but  to  the  characters  so  drawn  to  that  center  as  to 
form  its  circumference,  its  arcs  and  chords,  and  its  radii. 
The  size  and  form  of  these  individual  characters  are  fixed 
and  constant  in  accordance  with  the  general  scheme  of  the 
alphabetic  signs ;  but  the  direction  of  these  characters  is 
governed  in  part  by  the  alphabetic  conventions  of  the  sys- 
tem, and  in  part  by  the  second  principle  of  fonostenografic 
writing — the  principle  of  direction.  By  a  series  of  care- 
fully conducted  observations,  it  has  been  determined  that. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  59 

in  the  most  highly  developed  organisms  among  human  indi- 
viduals, the  natural  direction  in  writing,  tlie  instinctive 
tendency  in  drawing  circles,  the  free  delineation  of  move- 
ment, is  along  evohite  lines  and  not  along  involute  lines; 
it  is  outward  and  not  inward ;  it  is  centrifugal  rather  than 
centripetal ;  it  follows  the  course  of  the  hands  of  a  watch 
and  not  the  contrary  course.  On  the  other  side,  in  per- 
sons whose  development  in  mechanical  instinct  and  skill  is 
of  a  lower  order,  there  is  a  tendency  to  follow  the  opposite 
direction,  to  trace  circles  toward  the  left  and  not  toward  the 
right,  involutely  and  not  evolutely,  contra-clockwise  rather 
than  clockwise.  Now,  it  is  easily  demonstrable  that  the 
evohite  direction  is  far  better  for  the  purposes  of  shorthand 
than  the  involute.  The  second  principle  of  writing,  there- 
fore, in  fonostenografy — the  principle  of  direction — is  that 
the  normal^  the  r^^^/cz/' direction  of  all  strokes,,  circles,  and 
hooks,  is,  so  far  as  is  practicable,  the  evolute  and  not  the 
involute  direction.  Hence  it  follows,  as  a  practical  appli- 
cation of  this  principle  of  direction,  that  those  characters 
which,  when  drawn  normally  or  regularly,  are  evolute  signs, 
represent,  when  traced  irregularly  and  involutely,  not  their 
normal  value  in  sound,  but  an  additional  sound-value.  In 
such  cases  it  is  conceived  that  the  loss  in  speed  which  fol- 
lows upon  the  change  from  the  normal  evolute  direction  to 
the  abnormal  involute  direction,  is  amply  compensated  by 
the  resultant  gain  in  the  enlargement  of  the  character's 
sound-value  or  symbolic  efficiency. 

The  third  factor  in  fonostenosjrafic  writina:  is  the  relation 


6o  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

of  the  characters  themselves  one  to  another — their  length 
and  their  breadth,  their  directions  and  their  joinings.  How 
each  character  should  be  written  as  a  separate  sign,  is  deter- 
mined by  the  length,  the  thickness  or  lightness,  and  the 
direction,  assigned  to  it  in  the  alphabet  of  the  system.  As 
a  result  of  learning  the  lessons  already  given  and  of  prac- 
ticing the  exercises  so  far  afforded,  the  student  will  by  the 
time  he  reaches  this  chapter  have  mastered  all  the  elements 
of  the  fonostenografic  alphabet.  The  purpose  to  which  he 
should  now  more  especially  devote  his  attention,  is  the  ac- 
quisition of  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  principles  and 
rules  for  the  joining  together  of  the  various  characters  that 
go  to  make  up  the  shorthand  outlines. 

The  student  will  observe  that  shorthand  characters,  like 
longhand  script,  are  so  modified  by  motion  in  actual  speedy 
writing  as  to  lose  to  a  large  degree  their  preciseness  of  out- 
line, direction,  and  position.  Hence  it  is  not  necessary  for 
the  writer  to  attempt  to  maintain  in  his  fonostenografic 
script  a  very  rigid  and  mathematical  regularity  of  outline 
and  comparative  length  of  stroke  and  curve.  "The  prin- 
cipal movement  in  writing  being  forward,  all  indirect  or 
side  movements  are  subordinated  to  it ;  all  perpendicular  or 
partially  backward  strokes  will  be  shorter  than  those  written 
forward  horizontally  or  inclined,  and  all  words  which  would 
naturally  extend  far  above  or  below  the  line  of  writing  will 
be  brought  more  into  lineality  by  encroaching  a  little  on  the 
rules  of  position  and  by  making  the  phonographs  smaller." 
{Munson :   The  Complete  Phonographer,  p.  ii6. ) 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  6 1 


SCRIPT  JOININGS  IN  FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


The  special  aims  in  the  matter  of  the  joinings  and  com- 
bination of  the  characters  are  (a)  to  make  the  various  modes 
of  joining  zs,  facile  as  practicable  ;  (J?)  to  keep  them  as  reg- 
ular as  possible — tliat  is,  to  have  them  conform  to  general 
rules ;  and  (^)  to  draw  from  the  joinings  (/.  <?.,  from  the  regu- 
larity or  the  irregularity  of  these  joinings)  as  large  a  content 
of  significance,  as  high  a  power  of  sound-representation,  as 
is  practicable  and  advantageous. 

In  the  rules  set  forth  below  are  embodied  the  principles 
of  fonostenografic  joining ;  but  by  way  of  premise  to  the 
specific  rules  the  following  general  principle  may  be  stated  : 

Medial  circles  and  hooks  (that  is,  circles  and  hooks  occur- 
ring between  two  characters)  should  be  so  joined  as  to  allow 
the  whole  outline  to  be  drawn  continuously  without  a  pause 
or  break  and  without  any  unnecessary  angle  or  change  of 
direction  of  movement.  The  object  in  view  is  to  attach 
the  medial  circle  or  hook  to  the  preceding  character  in  such 
manner  as  to  render  the  juncture  with  the -following  charac- 
ter facile  and  regular. 

I.  Initial  and  final  circles  are  joined  to  curved  strokes  in 
such  manner  as  to  follow  the  direction  of  the  curve  of  the 
stroke  and  to  keep  ivithin  the  curved  character.     See  the 


62  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

outlines  for  what  (63,  i)*,  that  {d-i^,  2),  small  (wordsign 
form,  63,  4),  most  and  and  {(>t^,  5),  and  authors  (63,  8). 

2.  Circles  initial  or  final  to  straight  strokes,  and  circles 
occurring  medially  between  straight  strokes,  when  used  to 
express  their  normal  sound-value,  are  joined  in  such  manner 
as  to  follow  lines  of  evolute  motion  and  not  lines  of  invo- 
lute motion.  The  principle  embodied  in  this  rule  has 
already  been  explained  on  page  31.  Some  illustrations  of 
the  application  of  the  rule  may  be  noted  in  the  writing  exer- 
cise on  page  63  ;  e-  g-,  in  the  outline  for  characters  {(i-^,  2), 
the  phraseogram  for  a-question  {(i-^,  2),  and  the  signs  for 
brought  and  practical  (63,  3). 

3.  The  joining  of  circle-vowels  which  immediately  follow 
a  straight  stroke  and  precede  a  curved  stroke,  is  governed 
by  the  former  character,  the  circle,  when  its  normal  value 
is  to  be  expressed,  being  joined  to  the  straight  stroke  in 
such  manner  as  to  follow  an  evolute  line  of  movement. 
Some  instances  of  the  application  of  this  rule  are  found  in 
the  outlines  for  the  following  words :  Contrary  {(i7^,  6), 
rather  (^6^,  <))^  shorthand (67,,  12),  crowd {\\\  phrase  to-crowd, 
65,  i),  copperplate  (65,  2),  z.\\d. phonography  (65,  8). 

4.  When  the  circle-vowel  occurs  immediately  after  a 
curved  character  and  before  a  straight  stroke,  the  joining  is 

*  When  hereafter  a  shorthand  outline  or  stenograf  in  the  writ- 
ing exercises  is  referred  to,  the  reference  will  be  made  by  means 
of  two  figures  enclosed  within  parentheses,  the  first  figure  being 
the  page-number  and  the  second  the  number  of  the  line  ;  e.  g., 
"  (63,  i)  "  means  page  63,  first  line. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


63 


Ct. 


2  A,  -  ^  /^ 


64  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

governed  by  the  curve,  and  is  in  accordance  with  rule  i 
above  stated.  Illustrations  of  the  rule  are  found  in  the 
signs  for  shorthand (6^,  2),  phonography  (65,  8  ;  see  also  the 
briefer  form  for  this  word  given  on  page  71,  line  ^,the-smaller 
and  more  (67,  2). 

5.  Circle-vowels  occurring  between  two  curved  strokes 
are  written  within  the  curve  of  both  strokes,  as  has  been 
explained  on  page  42  ;  but  in  some  cases,  in  order  to  obtain 
a  more  facile  and  expeditious  joining,  the  circle  is  written 
within  the  curve  of  the  preceding  character  and  outside  of 
the  curve  of  the  following  character.  See  the  outlines  for 
longhand  (6g,  6)  2iX\di  Johnson  (55,  6). 

6.  When  an  initial  or  final  hook  is  used  to  represent  its 
normal  sound-value,  it  is  joined  without  the  interposition  of 
an  angle  to  the  following  or  preceding  stroke;  but  when 
the  hook  is  designed  to  convey  an  additional  sound-value 
(usually  that  of  s  or  z),  it  is  joined  with  an  angle.  As  an 
exception  to  this  rule,  it  may  be  noted  that  initial  short  i 
before  ;«  or  ;;//  or  ml?  is  written  normally  with  an  angle,  the 
regular  joining  not  being  very  facile. 

7.  Medial  hooks  are  usually  joined  without  an  angle  to  the 
stroke  followed,  and  with  an  angle  to  the  stroke  preceded. 
The  sound  of  e  is,  as  previously  explained,  sometimes  repre- 
sented by  a  disjoined  hook  and  sometimes  by  a  half-circle, 
hook  e  following  the  rules  for  hook-joinings  and  half-circle  e 
the  rules  for  half-circles. 

Having  comprehended  the  principles  and  learned  the 
rules  set  forth  in  this  chapter,  the  student  should  take  up 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


65 


-■     /  d      Aj    ~k^ v^  I     --^^    '^-" 

^ — -I^  I  Y ' ^^^ 


i  ■ 


66  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

for  practice  the  writing  exercise  ("  The  Size  of  Shorthand 
Characters")  presented  on  pages  63-73.  The  learner 
should  attempt  to  master  only  a  small  portion  of  the  exer- 
cise-matter at  a  time.  Let  him  first  read  over  about  half  a 
dozen  lines  of  the  shorthand  forms,  note  carefully  the  vari- 
ous fonostenografic  principles  and  devices  applied,  and  after 
the  matter  is  fully  apprehended  begin  to  write  the  portion 
read  and  studied.  Then  the  shorthand  outlines  of  this  first 
division  of  the  exercise  should  be  read  and  reread,  written 
and  rewritten,  a  dozen  times  before  the  next  portion  of  half 
a  dozen  lines  is  taken  up. 

In  the  outlines  for  such  words  as  size  (^6;^,  i),  f/mes  (6;^,  3), 
prize,  lies,  descries,  tries,  the  sound  of  2;  or  j  is  indicated  by 
writing  the  /  with  the  combined  ticks — that  is,  by  writing 
it  in  the  abnormal  or  irregular  way.  In  the  words  tie,  pry, 
lie,  descry,  try,  etc.,  the  final  vowel  is  represented,  of  course, 
by  the  single-tick  / ;  and  therefore  when  the  double-tick  i  is 
used  in  such  cases,  it  signifies  the  addition  of  the  sound- 
value  s  or  z.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  sounds  iz,  is,  when 
initial,  are  not  represented  by  the  double  tick,  but  by  the 
single  tick  and  the  stem  s,  and  that  wherever  the  double  tick 
is  used  initially  it  indicates  either  the  sound  merely  of  i  (in 
cases  in  which  it  may  be  necessary  to  draw  both  ticks  in 
order  to  get  a  facile  joining),  or  it  indicates,  as  previously 
explained  on  page  ;^6  (and  this  is  the  usual  case),  the  com- 
pound sound  of  wl  {001),  as  heard  in  the  word  while  (6t,,  6) 
or  wise  or  white.  In  representing  the  sounds  wlii  {why)  the 
aspirate  h  is  given  no  representation,  as  the  A-sound  here  is 
neither  strong  nor  significant. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


67 


^ 


/ 


-^'^U'-n^^r^')  / 


68  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

Some  additional  wordsigns  of  frequent  recurrence  are  in- 
troduced into  this  exercise,  viz:  Small (jS^,,  4),  eqiial(^6T„  7), 
info  (65,  2),  same  (65,  5),  lafge  (65,  11),  smaller  (67,  2), 
circumstances  (6g,  9),  obJecl(6g,  11),  amount (6g,  12),  larger 
(71,  8),  and  movement  {11,  10). 

The  final  unaccented  sy\\a.h\e  sent  or  ^^/;/,  in  such  terms  as 
absent,  decent,  present,  and  recent,  is  treated  as  an  afifix  or 
suffix,  and  is  represented  by  the  double-length  s  ox  z;  and 
since  the  suffix  ation  {e.g.,  in  representation  and  hundreds 
of  other  words)  is  represented  by  the  hook  a,  the  com- 
bination of  the  two  affixes  into  the  final  syllables  sentation, 
is  expressed  by  the  stem  j-/and  the  hook  a.  'S>et  presenta- 
tion (63, 1 1).  The  final  syllables  denta.nd  ment  (unaccented) 
are  likewise  represented  respectively  by  tlie  double-length  d 
and  the  double-length  m.  Note,  for  example,  students 
(65,  10),  elements  (71,  2),  and  movement  (j\,  10). 

The  final  hooks  a  and  i,  used  to  represent  the  affixes 
dtion  and  ition  in  such  words  as  illustration  (63,  12),  con- 
sideration {(iT^,  2),  and  expedition,  are,  in  order  to  represent 
the  plural  forms  of  the  affixes,  written  as  disjoined  hooks — 
that  is,  as  hooks  joined  zvitli  an  angle  in  the  manner  ordi- 
narily followed  for  the  indication  of  added  s  or  z. 

Note  that  in  the  stenograf  for  textbooks  (6t,,  12)  the  sound 
St,  and  in  the  stenograf  for  copperplate  (65,  2)  the  syllable 
per,2ix&  given  no  specific  representation,  because  this  sylla- 
ble and  that  sound  are  entirely  negligible,  being  neither 
strong  nor  significant. 

The  syllable  con  or  com  is  of  exceedingly  frequent  recur- 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


69 


d. 

i- — ^- — \  /  j 


(T 


/7 


^  5^ 


7©  AMERICAN    FOXOSTENOGRAFY. 

rence  as  a  simple  prefix  in  sucli  words  as  consider,  constatit, 
complete,  competent,  and  company,  or  as  part  of  a  compound 
prefix  in  such  words  as  reconsider,  inconstant,  incomplete, 
accomplish,  and  accompany .  Now,  (d)  this  prefix,  when  it 
occurs  unaccented  (in  such  terms  as  condition  and  compete), 
is  represented  merely  by  the  stroke  k  (condition  =.  k  dt,  and 
compete  =  k  p  e  t);  in  many  cases,  indeed,  as  will  appear 
later,  the  specific  representation  of  the  unaccented  prefix 
con  or  com  may  be  entirely  omitted. 

But  (^)  when  con  or  com  is  stressed  or  accented,  and  oc- 
curs before /&  orchard  or g?,oh,por  b,  t  ox  d,s  or  z,  etc.,  as  in 
conquer,  constant,  competent,  consequence,  congener,  congre- 
gate, contents,  conference,  convert,  conscious,  it  is  represented 
by  the  signs  for  k  and  o.  See  accomt>lish  (69,  12),  in  con- 
nection with  which  stenograf  it  should  be  noted  that  ordi- 
narily both  the  simple  prefix  com  and  the  compound  prefix 
accom  are  represented  by  the  characters  k  and  0,  since  there 
can  be  no  confusion  between  the  two. 

When  (<:)  the  prefix  com  is  accented  and  is  pronounced 
as  if  spelt  with  short  u,  as  in  comfort,  company,  it  should  be 
represented  by  the  characters  k  and  m. 

Where  (d)  the  con  or  com  is  followed  immediately  by  a 
vowel,  as  in  conical  or  comedy,  or  by  r,  as  in  comrades,  it 
should  be  written  in  full,  k  b  n  ox  k  b  m.  It  may  be  noted 
that  in  the  three  words  just  given  (conical,  comedy,  and  com- 
rades) the  syllable  con  or  com  is  the  basis  of  tlie  word  in 
sound  and  is  not  to  be  regarded  either  as  a  phonetic  prefix  or 
as  an  etymologic  prefix;  this  syllable  (con  or  com)  is  not  a 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAKY. 


71 


72  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

prefix  in  the  structure  of  such  words  as  comic  and  conical 
and  comity,  but  is  their  etymon  in  derivation. 

The  half-circle  for  final  e  long  is.  reversed  and  written 
with  its  open  side  facing  upward,  to  indicate  es  or  ez,  as  in 
increase  (65,  9,  and  73,  9),  decrease  (65,  9),  pleased  (65, 12). 

The  stem  sh  or  zh  is  frequently  used  to  represent  the  suf- 
fixes tion  (sounded  shun'),  tian,  cean,  sion,  cion,  when  these 
suffixes  occur  immediately  after  an  expressed  consonant,  as 
in  i\\e.viOxdi%  proportionate  (67,  i),  and  instruction  (67,  6). 
But  where,  as  in  expedition  (65,  10),  this  suffix  and  a  pre- 
ceding vowel  are  represented  by  the  expression  merely  of 
the  vowel,  then  the  stem  sh  is  used  to  indicate  tious  or  cious, 
as  in  expeditious  (67,  2). 

In  many  words  in  which  it  is  necessary  to  represent  specif- 
ically the  sound  of  s  or  z,  the  stem  which  stands  for  this  pair 
of  cognate  consonants  will  not  so  join  with  the  preceding 
character  as  to  preserve  completely  the  preciseness  of  form 
with  which  the  s  ox  z  and  the  preceding  stroke  should  both 
be  written.  This  difficulty  arises  particularly  in  those  cases 
in  which  the  stem  s  ox  z  follows  half-length  m  or  double- 
length  ;//.  Hence  the  sound  s  or  z,  rei)resented  immediately 
after  the  half-length  or  double-length  m,  is  indicated  by  a 
heavy  dot  joined  to  the  end  of  the  w-stroke,  as,  e.  g.,  in  the 
outlines  for  elements  (71,  2)  and  commerce  (73,  7). 

The  ticks  for  e  and  e  are  used  to  represent  respectively 
es  or  ez  and  ^i-  or  ez,  after  the  sounds  as  or  dz,  is  or  'iz,  when 
these  latter  sounds  have  been  indicated  by  the  reversed 
hook  a  or  i.  Note  the  first  illustration,  given  in  the 
phraseogram  most-cases  (73,  i). 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFV, 


73 


-)  ; 


/• 


; 


^ 


? 


U    y? 


74  AMERICAN    FONOSTEXOGRAFY. 

The  principles  and  practice  of  phrasing  will  be  discussed 
fully  in  a  succeeding  chapter;  but  to  point  out  here  the 
meaning  of  some  of  the  more  difficult  phrase-signs  intro- 
duced into  the  present  writing  exercise,  may  assist  the  stu- 
dent in  reading  the  shorthand  outlines  presented.  Among 
the  phrase-signs  to  be  specially  noted  may  be  mentioned  the 
following:  it-was {6>„  i2),t/iei e  zaas  {G^^t,).  i/-///i'g/i/(6^,  4), 
ihey-are  (67,  i),  each-other  (67,  1),  it-will-be  (67,  3),  ^^- 
s?7iall (6'],  8),  7ve-believe  (69,  2),  has-shozon  (69,  3),  as-well- 
as  (69,  5),  as-to-iJic-size  (69,  6),  that-will  enable-him  (71,  2  ), 
as-long-as  (73,  6),  there-is  (73,  7),  and  of-a-legible  (73,  11). 

The  student  wlio  has  thoroughly  mastered  such  of  the 
principles  of  fonostenografy  as  have  now  been  presented  in 
this  manual,  will  have  acquired  the  ability  to  discriminate 
between  strong  sounds  and  weak  sounds,  significant  syllables 
and  insignificant  syllables,  salient  factors  and  silent  factors  ; 
and  this  ability  to  distinguish  the  weak,  insignificant,  or 
silent  components  of  words  from  the  strong,  significant,  and 
salient  elements  of  words,  will  prove  of  inestimable  value  to 
the  learner  in  mastering  the  shorthand-root  princii)les  now 
to  be  set  forth. 


AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY.  75 


THE    FONOSTENOGRAFIC   ROOT 

OR 

SHORTHAND   RADICAL. 


Every  system  of  shorthand  that  aims  to  serve  as  a  suitable 
means  of  verbatim  reporting,  needs  an  extreme  development 
of  speed-capacity.  To  attain  such  development  the  highest 
degree  of  contraction  and  abbreviation  is  demanded,  and 
to  achieve  the  necessary  brevity  and  at  the  same  time  to 
preserve  the  necessary  legibility,  is  the  most  essential  con- 
sideration in  the  devising  of  a  shorthand  script.  Now,  it 
has  been  determined  that  all  legibility  rests  upon  and  arises 
out  of  that  which,  eitlier  in  itself  or  in  the  connection  or 
context  in  which  it  is  found,  is  an  element  of  certainty,  a 
factor  of  known  significance.  The  more  conspicuous  and 
comprehensive  this  element  or  factor  becomes,  the  greater 
is  the  resulting  legibility.  This  element  or  factor  may  be 
termed  the  basis  of  certainty,  and  if  a  method  of  stenography 
has  a  basis  of  certainty,  a  foundation  of  assured  significance 
(commensurate  with,  let  us  say,  though,  of  course,  not  equal 
to,  that  basis  of  certainty  which  is  found  in  longhand  writ- 
ing and  which  rests  upon  the  alphabetic  letters),  such  a 
method  has  acquired  pro  tanto  the  most  valuable  aid  to 
practical  legibility.     In  American  Fonostenografy  there  is 


76  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

such  a  basis  of  certainty,  and  it  is  a  more  rational  and  con- 
stant foundation  of  known  significance  than  any  other  effi- 
cient system  of  shorthand  affords.  The  basis  of  certainty 
in  American  Fonostenografy  is  founded  upon  the  principle 
of  the  fonostenografic  root,  the  rule  of  the  shorthand  radical. 
It  is  conceived  that  in  every  sentence  there  is  an  indis- 
pensable clause  or  phrase  or  word,  in  every  phrase  there  is 
an  indispensable  word,  in  every  word  there  is  an  indispen- 
sable syllable,  and  in  every  syllable  an  indispensable  sound. 
In  shorthand  writing  we  deal  with  words  as  primal  parts  of 
sentences.  Words  are  the  ultimate  components  and  the 
first  factors  of  the  writing,  viewed  from  a  shorthand  stand- 
point, and  it  is,  accordingly,  to  the  words  that  we  look  for 
the  basis  of  fonostenografic  certainty.  Now,  every  word 
contains  as  an  atomic  part,  so  to  speak,  or  as  an  irresolvable 
element,  some  indispensable  syllable  (a  syllable  being  the 
simplest  complete  combination  of  sounds);  and  this  indis- 
pensable syllable  contains  the  stronga.wd  significant^  factor 
or  factors  in  the  word's  sound,  and  it  gives,  therefore,  the 
clearest  clue  to  the  determination  of  the  word  itself.  Hence 
this  essential  syllable,  this  combination  of  the  strong  and 
significant  sounds  of  the  term,  is  regarded  as  the  fonosteno- 
grafic root  or  shorthand  radical  of  the  word.  It  should  first 
of  all  be  clearly  understood  that  this  shorthand  root  is  not 
a  radical  in  the  etymological  derivation  or  view,  nor  is  it  a 

*  These  two  adjectives  are  used  throughout  this  work  in  the 
special  sense  assigned  to  them  iu  the  preliminary  pages  of  the 
manual.     See  pages  29  and  42. 


r 


I 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  77 

radical  in  the  grammatic  inflection  or  philologic  structure 
of  the  word.  The  fonostenografic  root  is  a  root  in  sound 
and  not  in  form,  a  phonetic  root  and  not  an  etymologic  root. 
Kno7v,  for  example,  is  the  English  etymologic  root  of  the 
word  acknowledge,  but  the  phonetic  radical,  the  fonosteno- 
grafic root,  of  this  latter  term  is  knowl  {n^  '6  V). 

Every  fonostenografic  root,  to  justify  its  selection  as  such, 
must  represent  that  syllable  or  that  combination  of  syllables 
to  which  it  is  necessary  to  give  specific  representation  in 
order  to  maintain  the  legibility  of  the  shorthand  outline  ; 
it  must  consequently  signify  such  a  sound-combination  as 
contains  the  strong  and  significant  factors  of  the  word  to 
be  indicated  ;  it  must  be,  and,  should  it  possess  the  require- 
ment just  laid  down,  it  necessarily  will  be,  luminously  legi- 
ble ;  it  must,  in  fine,  be  a  basis  of  certainty,  a  fundamental 
factor  of  known  significance. 

Some  words  contain  no  fonostenografic  root  other  than 
the  full  word  itself,  the  word  and  the  shorthand  radical 
being,  in  terms  of  this  class,  practically  identical.  This  is 
especially  true,  naturally,  of  many  words  of  one  syllable. 
Other  words,  again,  are  legibly  represented  by  the  radical 
alone,  the  expression  merely  of  the  shorthand  root  being 
amply  adequate  as  a  legible  outline  for  a  word  of  this  sort. 
There  is,  on  the  other  hand,  a  third  class  of  words,  in  the 
representation  of  which  the  fonostenografic  root  can  gen- 
erally be  used  only  as  a  root,  and  the  legible  symbolization 
of  such  words  consists  of  the  shorthand  radical  and  a  prefix 
or  suffix,  or  both,  to  that  root,  in  order  to  distinguish  the 


78  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

particular  word  represented  from  all  others  that  have  the 
same  root-sound  (phonetic  derivation)  and  the  same  fono- 
stenografic  radical.  For  example,  the  shorthand  outline 
for  that  syllable-combination  of  sounds  which,  in  its  brief- 
est longhand  form,  is  represented  by  the  letters  s  I  n,  is  the 
fonostenografic-root  outline  of  the  words  sign  and  sine.  Here 
the  shorthand  outline  for  the  whole  word  and  the  shorthand 
sign  for  the  root,  are  identical.  Now  this  same  shorthand 
radical  (representing  s  t  n)  may  also  be  used,  instead  of 
some  of  its  phonetic  derivatives,  in  cases  in  which  the  con- 
text muslsXiovf  which  word  is  intended ;  the  fonostenografic 
root  may  then  signify  assign,  consign,  design,  resign,  assign- 
ment, etc.  In  order,  however,  to  distinguish  words  of  this 
class  one  from  another,  it  will  often  be  necessary  to  com- 
bine, for  the  legible  representation  of  a  particular  word, 
both  the  root  and  a  prefix  or  suffix.  It  becomes  important, 
then,  for  the  student  to  master  the  manner  of  representing 
these  prefixes  and  suffixes.* 

By  way  of  preface  to  the  following  paragraphs,  which  set 
forth  the  rules  for  the  representation  of  the  various  fono- 
stenografic prefixes  and  suffixes,  it  may  be  stated  that  the 

*  It  should  be  noted  that  when  we  speak  here  of  prefixes  and 
suffixes,  we  n\&a.n.  fonostenografic  affixes — that  is,  prefixes  and 
suffixes  which  are  not  accented,  which  form  no  part  of  the  short- 
hand radical,  and  which  in  themselves  are  generally  weak  and 
insignificant  syllables,  but  which,  however,  must  frequently  be 
expressed  for  the  purpose  of  differentiating,  one  from  another, 
words  which  may  be  represented  by  the  same  fonostenografic 
root. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFV.  79 

rules  and  examples  here  given  are  not  designed  to  be  by 
any  means  complete  in  themselves  or  exhaustive  of  the  sub- 
ject. It  is  merely  the  purpose  to  show  by  a  series  of  sug- 
gestive illustrations  how  comprehensive  is  the  principle  of 
representing  words  by  their  shorthand  roots  and  affixes ; 
to  exemplify  the  manner  in  which  this  principle  is  to  be 
applied;  and  to  indicate,  by  analogy  from  the  words  fur- 
nished for  such  application,  to  what  classes  of  terms  this 
principle  should  be  applied  and  to  what  classes  it  should 
not  be  applied.  The  student,  therefore,  need  not  endeavor 
to  memorize  the  entire  list  of  these  prefixes  and  suffixes. 
All  that  is  necessary  is  to  read  them  over  two  or  three  times 
very  carefully,  to  write  out  the  proper  shorthand  outlines 
for  all  the  examples  given,  to  note  attentively  the  conditions 
of  the  use  in  connection  with  them  of  the  principle  of  the 
fonostenografic  root  and  prefix  or  suffix,  and,  by  intelligent 
study  of  the  examples  furnished,  so  to  master  the  principles 
of  the  application  of  the  shorthand-radical  rules  as  to  be 
able  to  apply  these  principles  and  rules  correctly  and  effi- 
ciently in  innumerable  other  analogous  terms. 

I.  The  prefixes  ac  (in  such  words  as  accept,  accented,  and 
accelerated'),  ad  {\\\  advance,  adversity,  and  advertise),  am 
(in  ambition,  ambassador,  and  ambrosia),  and  an  (in  an- 
tagonism, anterior,  and  antipathy),  are  represented  by  the 
circle-vowel  a  (or  a)  joined  directly  to  the  sign  used  to 
symbolize  the  shorthand  root.  The  words  given  as  examples 
in  the  above  sentence  should,  therefore,  be  expressed  re- 
spectively as  a  spt,  a  s  en,  <?  s  1  rt  (half-length  r  being  the 


8o  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

sufifix  for  erate),  a  v  a  n  s,  a  vr  st,  a  vr  t  Iz  (use  combined 
ticks  to  represent  iz),  &\i  2&  dr,  ahl  (final  hook  t  repre- 
sents ttion),  a  br  o  sh,  a  t  a  g  //  /2,  «  t  e  r,  a  t  i  p.* 

2.  The  tick  e  is  employed  as  a  prefix  to  shorthand  radi- 
cals to  represent  ein  (before  the  sound  b  ox p)  in  such  terms 
as  embargo  (^  b  ar  g),  embarrass  (<?  b  a  rs),  empiric  {e  p  i  r), 
employ  (<?  p  1  oi)  ;  to  represent  en  (before  the  sounds  k  and 
^-hard)  in  words  like  encounter  (^eV  ou  nt),  encourage  (^  kr  j), 
encumber  (e  k  nibr),  engage  (^  g  a  j),  engraft  {e  gr  a  ft),  and 
engross  (e  gr  os);  and  to  represent  ex  in  such  words  as  ex- 
tend {e  t  en),  explore  (^-p  1  o  r),  explain  (^  p  1  a  n),  extent- 

*  Throughout  the  following  pages  of  this  manual  the  author, 
in  indicating  the  outlines  of  fonostenografs  by  means  of  the 
briefest  alphabetic  expressions  for  the  component  shorthand 
characters,  will  use  roman  letters  for  the  roots  or  radicals  of  the 
words  represented  and  italic  letters  for  the  affixes,  whether  pre- 
fixes or  suffixes.  It  may  be  well,  also,  to  remark  here  that  in  the 
representations  of  the  shorthand  signs  by  means  of  longhand 
characters,  every  group  of  the  ordinar}^  alphabetic  letters  is  de- 
signed to  be  expressed  by  a  single  shorthand  stroke  or  curve,  or 
hook  or  circle  ;  e.  g.,  Ir  stands  for  a  half-length  /,  but  /  r  calls 
for  an  ordinary  length  /  and  the  stroke  r ;  It  or  /rf  =  a  double- 
length  /,  but  I  d  =^  the  two  characters  /  and  d ;  the  expressions 
en  and  un  indicate  that  the  half -quadrants  ett  and  un  are  to  be 
used,  and  not  e  and  n  (full-length),  nor  7i  and  n  ;  the  expres- 
sions as,  az,  is,  iz,  es,  os,  Us,  show  that  the  signs  for  a,  a,  i,  i,  e, 
d,  u,  are  to  be  so  written  as  to  convey  the  symbolization  of  the 
added  sounds  of  5  or  z,  the  characters  for  a,  a,  ?,  e,  and  o,  being 
reversed,  the  i  being  represented  by  the  double-i\ck,  and  the 
?7-stroke  being  drawn  half-length. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  8 1 

pore  {e  t  m),  extinct  {e  t  i  ngt),  and  exhibition  {e  b  i).  It  is 
to  be  noted  that  en  in  terms  sucli  as  encircle^  endear^  endeavor, 
endorse,  engine,  enjoy,  enlarge,  entice,  entitle,  and  entrust,  is 
always  indicated,  as  in  the  usnal  manner,  by  the  half-lengtli 
curved  stroke  en.  In  entertain  {en  t  a  n),  enterprise,  and 
some  other  similar  words,  the  prefix  enter  is  represented  by 
the  curved  stroke  en. 

3.  The  half-circle  signifying  "i  serves  in  a  numerous  class  of 
words  as  a  prefix  to  shorthand  radicals;  e.g.,  it  represents 
{(i)  ivi  in  imbrue  (/  br  oo),  impair  (j  p  a  r),  impede  (z  p  e  d), 
imperfect  (i  pr  f ),  implicit  (/  p  1  i  s);  {b~)  in  in  incision  (j  s  i), 
incite  (/  c  i  t),  inclement  0  c  1  m),  include  (l  cl  ood),  in/er 
{}  fr),  inside  (i  s  i  d),  insist  (J  s  is),  inspect  (i  sp  e  k),  intent 
(}  t  en);  and  (c)  inter,  in  all  such  terms  as  those  in  which  it 
will  not  be  liable  to  be  mistaken  for  im  or  in.  In  intercede, 
e.  g.,  and  interfere  and  intermission,  half-circle  /should  be 
used  to  signify  inter ;  but  generally  it  should  not  be  so 
employed  in  such  words  as  interpose  (in  which  //;.  =  inter, 
I  p  o  s  being  used  to  mean  impose)  and  interplead  (z  p  1  e  d 
=  implead).  When  the  sound  inter  is  really  the  fonosten- 
ografic  root  of  the  word,  and  not  merely  a  prefix,  it  should 
be  represented  by  the  half-circle  t  and  the  double-length  n. 
Hence  interest,  interim,  and  interval  should  be  written  re- 
spectively i  nt  rs,  i  nt  r  m,  and  i  nt  v  I. 

4.  The  large  circle  representing  0  is  used  as  a  prefix  to 
signify  (<?)  ob  in  observe  (^  s  r  v),  objective  (p']  kt  v)  ;  (b)  oc 
in  occidental  (t5  s  d  en);  {c)  om  in  onmiscient  (o  n  i  sht),  om- 
nipotent (0  nip),  onmivorous  {o  n  i  v);  and  {d)  on  in  ontogeny 
{p  t  6  j)  and  ontology  (0  t  6  1). 


82  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

5.  The  downward  facing,  half-quadrant  sign  for  short  u 
is  used  instead  of  the  upward  facing  half-quadrant,  to  rep- 
resent the  syllable  jin,  occurring  before  the  sounds  k  and 
^-hard,  kw  and  gw  (as  in  uncouth,  uncover,  uncomfortable, 
uncompromising,  unconscious,  unquestio/iable,  Jinguent^,  it 
being  the  rule  that,  wherever  the  character  for  ««  will  not 
join  freely  in  the  connection  in  which  it  is  required,  the 
reverse  half-quadrant  is  to  be  substituted.  This  half-quad- 
rant a,  is  also  employed  to  signify  the  prefix  under,  in  undergo 
(u  g  o),  underrate  (ji  r  a  t),  underground  (^ii  gr  ou),  under- 
take {u  t  di  k),  and  all  similar  words. 

6.  The  prefix  baj^  in  such  words  as  Bar  abbas,  barouche, 
basalt,  ballastic ;  be,  in  become^  belay ^  believe^  belike,  bereave  ; 
bi,  in  biennial,  bifurcate  (accented  on  second  syllable),  bi- 
gesimal,  binomial,  biography,  biology;  bo,  in  beau-monde, 
bolero^ Bolivia;  and  bu,  in  bureaucracy,  Bucyrus,  Bucepha- 
lous,  butyric ; — these  prefixes  (^ba,  be,  bi,  bo,  bu)  are  repre- 
sented by  joining  the  stroke  for  the  sound  b  directly  to  the 
shorthand  radical.  So,  too,  the  stem-^  is  halved  to  repre- 
sent the  prefix  bra,  bre,  bri,  bru,  in  words  like  bravado, 
bravura,  Britannic,  brutality,  Brule,  etc. 

In  a  precisely  similar  manner  use  the  stem  k  to  signify 
ca,  in  calamity,  caligraphy,  career,  carouse ;  ke  {ce),  in  ke- 
ramic ;  chi  ov  ki,  in  Killarney,  chimera,  chirography ;  co,  in 
coagulate,  collect,  collide,  cooperate,  coordinate,  Korea  ;  and 

*The  dot  under  the  vowel  indicates  that  the  sound,  whether 
long  or  short  or  broad,  is  unaccented,  and  to  a  greater  or  less 
degree  slurred. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


83 


84  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

the  halved  stem-/^  to  signify  ere,  in  credulity ;  cri,  in  crite- 
rion, Crimea;  cru,  in  crustacean,  crudescence ;  and  the 
steni-d?  to  indicate  da,  de,  di,  do,  or  du,  in  Darius  {d  r  Is), 
delay,  deliver,  dilate,  direct,  dynamic,  dynastic,  (but  not  in 
dynamo  or  dynasty,  which  are  written,  respectively,  as  d  I  n  ;// 
and  din  st),  domestic,  dominical,  (not  in  Dominic  or  domi- 
cile), Duluth,  and  duration. 

In  connebtion  with  the  extremely  frequent  prefixes  com 
and  coTi,  the  student  is  referred  to  the  rules  and  illustra- 
tions given  on  pages  68-72. 

Among  the  numerous  other  prefixes  constantly  recurring 
in  the  reporter's  practice,  the  following  may  be  deemed  the 
most  important:  {a)  Ala,  in  material  {tn  t  e  r),  maternity 
{jn  tr  nt),  madonna  {in  do  n),  majority  {in  j  6  r),  malignant 
{m  1  i  g),  malevolent  {tn  1  e  v),  malicious  {m  1  i  sh);  me,  in 
medallion  {tn  d  a  1),  melodious  {tn  1  o  d),  medicinal  {in  d  i  s)^ 
memento  {tn  m  en),  merino  {tn  r  e  n),  metallic  {in  t  a  1);  ;«/, 
in  minority  {m  n  6  r),  mig^ration  {m  gr  a),  millennium  {m  1  en); 
mo,  in  momentum  {m  m  ent),  Mogul  {tn  g  1),  molest  {in  1  st); 
{b)  Pre,  \y\ prevail {pr  v  a  V), predominate  {pr  d  6  m),  pre- 
clude {pr  c  1  ood),  predict  {pr  d  i  kt),  precise  {pr  s  Is), 
precision  {pr  s  i),  precocious  {pr  k  o  sh);  pro,  in  profane 
{pr  f  a  n),  provoke  {pr  v  o  k),  promotion  {pr  m  o),  profes- 
sion {pr  i  h), proficient  {pr  ii  sh),  profound  {pr  i  ou),  pro- 
crastinate {pr  kr  as),  produce  {pr  d  us),  provision  {pr  v  i); 
(r)  i?i?,  in  reality  {r  a.  It ;  ri?^?/  =  r  e  1  [hook-/  joined  witli 
angle  to  r-stroke]),  rebound  {r  b  ou),  refer  {r  fr),  regener- 
ate {r]  en  rt),  relation  {r  1  a),  rel'gion  {r  1  i  j),  remember 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


85 


7C^n^^        ^       [    6    >c    n 


86  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

(r  m  m),  republic  {r  p  b),  revert  {r  vr);  {d')  Sa,  se,  and  su, 
in  sagacity  (^  g  a  s),  sagacious  {s  g  as),  salacious  {s  1  as), 
secure  (i'  k  u  r),  se.late  (j  d  a  t),  select  {s  1  kt),  senescent 
(j  n  e  st),  suggest  ("s  j  \_large  hooli\  st),  suspect  (s  sp  k),  j/zj- 
/><?/z.?'  (i'  sp  en),  sustain  (x  st  a  n),  suspicion  {s  sp  i),  suspi- 
cious (<■  sp  1  sh),  surrender  (s  r  en) ;  ((?)  Z'n?/?  and  trans, 
in  transcend  (Jr  a  s  en),  transcribe  {tr  as  kr  i  b),  transfer 
{tr  as  fr),  transmit  {tr  as  mt),  transformation  {tr  as  f  r  m  a), 
transcendental  {tr  as  d  en),  translation  {tr  as  1  a),  trans- 
parent {tr  as  p  a  rt). 

Suffixes. — Among  the  more  frequently  used  fonosteno- 
grafic-root  suffixes  there  should  be  noted  : 

I.  («)  Able^  ible,  uble,  ble,  represented  by  stroke-^  in  such 
terms  as  accountable  (k  ou  nt  ^),  actionable  (a  k  sh  b,  double 
suffix  sh  b  =  tionable'), invaluable  {i  V  a  1  b),  forcible  {io  rs  ^), 
contemptible  {k  t  mpt  b),  soluble  (s  o  1  b),  voluble  (v  o  1  /^)  ; 
(^)  Ability,  ibility,  ubility,  bility,  represented  by  the  strokes 
b  and  /,  in  words  like  credibility  (kr  d  b  I),  conforma bility 
{k  {  o  T  m  b  I),  respectability  (sp  kt  ^  /),  legibility  (1  j  b  I)  ; 
{c)  Ble  and  pie,  after  in,  represented  by  the  shading  of  the 
w-curve  (the  character  mb  or  ;;//  ^  mble  or  mple),  as,  e.  g., 
in  the  words  gamble  ox  gambol  {g  a  m^),  ramble  (r  a  nii^), 
sample  (s  a  m/),  ample  (a  m/),  shamble  (sh  a  m;^),  temple 
(t  m/),  humble  (u  m<^),  crumple  (kr  m/)  ;  (</)  ^(^/^  and  /^/^, 
a/?if/-  J  or  2,  represented  by  the  shading  of  the  j-curve  (the 
character  sb  =  unaccented  sable  or  sible),  as  in  peaceable 
(p  e  s/J),  dispensable  {d  sp  en  s^),  accessible  {a  s  Si!^),  expres- 
sible (<f  pr  s^),  compressible  {k  pr  s^). 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


87 


1  ^   \  "-6~—^  :   (a)  r  ^  {> 


^_  1^  er-  7--^ 


88  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

2.  Unaccented  cent  {sent),  dent,  lent,  ment,  nent,  senf^ 
tent,  vent,  represented  respectively  by  the  double-lengtli 
strokes  s  or  z,  d,  I,  vi,  n,  s,  t,  and  z;,  as  in  innocent  {\  n  sf), 
recent  (r  e  st),  resident  (rs  dt),  redolent  (r  d  //),  ornament 
(o  r  n  ;;//),  prominent  (pr  6  m  «/),  represent  (r  p  st),  impo- 
tent (i  mp  //),  advent  (a  d  vt).  Unaccented  cant,  as  in 
mendicant  (m  en  d  /^/)  ;  hint,  as  in  stimulant  (st  i  m  //)  ; 

/d!/?/,  as  in  elephant  (e  I  ft),  and  the  whole  class  of  similar 
suffixes,  are  represented  in  like  manner  by  the  doubling  of 
the  consonant  character  preceding  the  final  ///-sound. 

3.  Unaccented  bate,  cate,  date,  gate,  late,  mate,  nate,  rate, 
represented  respectively  by  doubling  the  character  for  b, 
k,  d,  g,  I,  M,  n,  and  halving  the  ^--stroke,  as  in  reprobate 
(r  p  r  bt),  delicate  (d  e  1  kt),  antedate  (a  nt  dt),  delegate 
(d  e  1  gt),  postulate  (p  o  st  It),  animate  (a  n  ;«/),  coordinate 
(k  o  rd  nt),  accelerate  (a  sir/). 

4.  The  suffixes  tion  and  sio?i,  in  the  terminations  ation, 
ition,  ision,  ession,  etion,  otion,  ution,  usion,  are,  as  has  been 
already  indicated  in  many  of  the  previous  illustrations, 
always  omitted  in  the  shorthand  outline,  when  they  occur 
after  an  expressed  vowel  sound ;  and  the  specific  repre- 
sentation of  these  suffixes  is  also  frequently  omitted,  when 
they  follow  a  specifically  represented  consonant  sound  ;  as, 
e.  g.,  in  abolition  (a  b  1  i),  accusation  (i  k  s  a),  acquisition 
{a  kw  s  i),  addition  {a  d  i),  adoption  (d  6  p),  affliction 
(f  1  i  k),  agitation  (a  jt  a),  application  (a  p  k  a),  apprehen-  . 
sion  (a  pr  en),  procession  {pr  s  e),  profession  {pr  f  e),  com- 
pletion (/^  p  I  e),  depletion  (d  pie),  commotion  {k  m  o),  de- 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  89 

votion  {ji  V  o),  promotion  (/  r  m  o),  diminution  (d  i  m  n  u), 
revolution  {r  v  1  00),  collusion  {k  1  00),  corruption  {k  r  p), 
seclusion  (x  k  1  00). 

Omitted  Affixes. — As  has  already  been  shown,  the  pre- 
fixes and  suffixes  may  in  many  outlines  be  omitted  alto- 
gether, the  fonostenografic  root  affording  of  itself  a  suffi- 
ciently legible  symbolization  of  the  word.  This  omission 
of  the  ordinary  simple  affix  is  governed  by  numerous  con- 
siderations, such  as  the  number  o{  other  terms  for  which  the 
outline  written  would  serve  as  a  shorthand  radical;  the 
familiarity  of  the  writer  with  the  matter  to  be  reported  and 
the  particular  word  or  words  in  question  ;  the  frequency  of 
the  occurrence  of  the  special  term  in  the  matter  being 
written;  the  practical  possibility  or  impossibility  of  the 
confusion  of  the  term  to  be  expressed  in  the  shorthand  writ- 
ing witli  the  other  terms  possessing  the  same  fonostenografic 
root.  All  these  considerations  in  their  turn  involve  such 
personal  factors  as  the  writer's  general  culture,  his  special 
knowledge  of  the  particular  topic  that  is  being  discussed, 
his  native  or  acquired  ability  to  read  his  notes  readily,  and 
the  speed  at  which  he  is  compelled  to  write.  Hence  it  is 
tliat  no  very  precise  or  definite  rules  as  to  the  insertion  or 
omission  of  the  simple  prefixes  or  suffixes  can  be  laid  down 
for  the  reporter's  guidance.  The  one  comprehensive  pre- 
cept to  be  ever  borne  in  mind  in  this,  as  in  all  other  parts 
of  the  practice  of  fonostenografy,is — In  symbolizing  sounds 
be  only  as  specific  as  legibility  demands  and  as  speed  re- 
quirements permit.  The  demands  of  legibility  and  the 
requirements  of  speed  vary  with  every  individual  writer. 
7 


90  AMKRICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  cases  in  which  it 
is  the  rule  al\va\s  to  omit  one  or  more  affixes.  These  in- 
stances are  sucii  as  arise  out  of  the  occurrence  of  double  or 
compound A^\e9.,  like  disre  in  disregard Qi  is  g  a  rd),  o/sa  in 
disagreeable  (ji'is  gy  q  b),  disbe  in  disbelieve  (dis  lev),  disen 
in  disentangle  {ci'is  t  a  ng),  disin  in  disincline  {d'ts  c  1  i  n), 
niisbe  in  misbehavior  {jn  is  a  vr),  miscon  in  misco'icepiion 
(w  /  s  sp),  misde  in  misdemeanor  {^m  z  j  m  e  nr),  misunder  in 
misunderstand i^ni  /  y  st  a  n),  itide  in  independent  (z  n  p  en), 
interde  in  interdepe>ident  (j  nt  p  en),  infer  re  in  interrelation 
(I  r  1  a),  ///^<?//  in  inconsiderate  (/  s  i  d)  ;  and,  among  coni- 
jjound  suffixes,  tional  in  volitional  (v  1  i  sh)  or  denomina- 
tional (n  o  m  n  a  sh),  tionery  or  tionary  in  confectionery 
(f  k  j//)  and  stationary  (st  a  j-/;),  ^//j/)'  in  officirnsly  (f  i  sh  /v 
[large  final  hook  /)-]),  ///ir/)'  i'l  accordingly  (c  o  rd  /). 

The  rule  with  respect  to  compoimd  prefixes  is  :  Omit  the 
second  or  intermediate  syllable  or  part  of  the  compound  pre- 
fix. But  the  rule  with  respect  to  compound  suffixes  is  found 
to  vary  with  different  suffixes,  sometimes  the  first  part,  some- 
times the  second  of  two  or  of  three,  and  occasionally  the 
last  of  three,  being  the  least  significant  part  and  therefore 
the  proper  one  to  be  omitted. 

Having,  by  painstaking  study  of  the  al)ove  precepts  and 
by  carefiilly  writing  and  rewriting  the  examples  furnished, 
acquired  a  working  knowledge  of  the  principles  and  piac- 
tice  of  the  fonostenografic  root,  the  student  is  now  prepared 
to  take  up  the  exercise  ("  Plirase-writing  ")  presented  on 
pages  83-87.     He  should  begin  with  about  half  a  page  of 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  9 1 

tliis  matter,  should  peruse  and  re- peruse  it  until  he  can  trans- 
late freely  every  stenograf,  and  should  then  write  and  rewrite 
this  half  page  of  translated  matter  until  he  has  thoroughly 
committed  to  memory  for  instant  use  in  his  future  practice 
all  the  shorthand  roots  and  wordsigns  and  piiraseograms. 

This  writing  exercise  is  specially  designed  for  the  presen- 
tation of  a  number  of  good  examples  of  fonostenografic 
roots,  and  in  order  to  render  the  translation  of  the  matter 
less  difficult  for  the  learner,  his  attention  is  hereby  drawn  to 
the  meaning  of  the  following  shorthand  radicals  afforded  for 
practice  :  Together  (83,  2),  belong  (83,  3),  illegible  (83,  3), 
practice  (85,  5),  secofid (?,t,,  6),  nrtiire  (83,  6),  effort {^t,,  6), 
written  (83,  7),  7Vonder/iilly  (83,  10),  legible  {%2,^  ii)>  ^f'^ 
(85,  i),  improvement  {Zc^^  2),  children  (85,  4),  imagine  (85,  4), 
better  (85,  4),  carry  (85,  5),  little  (85,  11),  experience  (85, 1 1), 
banish  (85,  11),  reduced  (85,  12),  between  (87,  3),  reason 
(87,  i^, produce  (87,  e^)^ perpendicular  (d)"] ,16)^  below  (87,  11), 
The  following  are  some  of  the  more  difficult  new  phrase- 
signs  introduced  in  this  exercise:  Which  do  not  (?,t^,  ^^, 
Just  as  (83,  8),  ir!  advance  (85,  7),  at  first  {^Tij  'i-o),for  ah 
(85,  12),  any  reason  (87,  4). 

The  student  should  note  that  final  ly  after  half-length 
curves  and  strokes  is  preferably  represented,  as  a  general 
rule,  by  the  stroke  /and  not  by  the  large  hook  ly.  {V.  the 
wordsign  certainly,  Zt^,  8). 

Note  that  the  signword  all  is  represented  by  the  large 
circle-vowel  atv  (K  ^t^,  i;  85,  12,  and  87,  11),  and  that 
the  signword. <r/  is  symbolized  by  the  small  circle-vowel  a 
{V.  83,  10,  85,  10). 


92  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


PHRASING   IN   SHORTHAND. 


In  all  methods  of  writing  much  time  is  lost  through  the 
constant  discontinuance  of  the  writing  at  the  end  of  the 
outline  of  each  word,  and  the  recommencement  of  the  wri- 
ting at  the  beginning  of  the  next  outline,  this  process  of 
constantly  discontinuing  and  recommencing  entailing  such 
a  loss  of  graphic  impetus  and  fluency  as  lessens  materially 
the  speed-capacity  of  the  script  employed.  To  reduce  in 
every  practicable  manner  the  time  required  for  the  tracing 
of  the  outlines  which  stand  for  the  spoken  words  and  phrases 
and  sentences,  has  always  been  a  desideratum  in  every  species 
of  rapid  writing.  Now,  one  of  the  most  important  princi- 
ples of  abbreviation  adopted  in  nearly  all  systems  of  short- 
hand for  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  rapidity  of  the  writing 
and  thereby  saving  time,  is  the  joining  of  words  together 
into  shorthand  phrases  or  phraseographs.  To  phrase  in 
shorthand  means  to  indicate  by  a  single  outline  more  than 
one  word,  the  characters  representing,  the  phrased  words 
being  combined  so  as  to  form  but  one  fonostenograf.  That 
such  joining  of  words,  resulting  as  it  does  in  a  largely  de- 
creased number  of  penliftings  and  pausings,  effects  a  ma- 
terial saving  of  time,  is  absolutely  indisputable;  but  there 
has  always  been  much  doubt  and  uncertainty  as  to  which 
classes  of  words  properly  require  the  application  of  the 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  93 

principle  of  joining  together  or  phrasing  the  sliorthand  out- 
lines. The  writer  who  once  grasps  the  import  of  the  follow- 
ing precepts  for  phrasing  and  who  learns  the  rules  expressed 
in  the  shorthand  notes  on  pages  83-87,  herein  again  set 
forth,  will  rarely  find  himself  perplexed  to  solve  aright  the 
oft-recurring  problem,  To  phrase  or  not  to  phrase. 

The  most  comprehensive  precept  for  shorthand  phras- 
ing— a  precept  which,  it  is  of  course  true,  would,  were  it 
not  explained  and  defined  by  the  rules  below,  be  of  little 
service  to  the  learner — may  be  stated  as  follows :  Phrase 
wherever  you  can  phrase  advantageously.  When  it  is  an 
advantage  and  when  it  is  not  an  advantage  to  phrase,  is 
shown  in  these  rules : 

Rule  i.  Whenever  the  fonostenografic  outlines  are  sym- 
bols in  writing  of  phrases  in  speaking  (/.  e.,  when  the  words 
to  be  represented  form  spoken  phrases),  and  at  the  same 
time  their  phrasing  in  shorthand  will  not  violate  the  ac- 
companying rule  2  or  rule  3,  then  the  fonostenografic  out- 
lines should  be  joined  in  j^hrases. 

Rule  2.  Whenever  the  words,  if  phrased,  require  out- 
lines which  will  not  phrase  in  form — that  is,  outlines  which 
will  not  combine  with  facility  or  which,  when  joined,  will 
give  forms  that  are  too  long  or  cumbrous  or  awkward — then 
the  outlines  should  not  be  phrased. 

Rule  3.  When  the  outlines,  though  they  represent  phrases 
in  speech  and  afford  phrases  in  form,  would  nevertheless 
make  such  phraseograms  as  are  not  so  legible  as  not  to  be 
liable  to  conflict  with  outlines  or  phraseograms  of  other 


94  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFV. 

terms  or  expressions,  then  tlie  outlines  should  not  be  joined 
in  written  phrases. 

To  sum  up,  when  the  combined  outlines  represent  phrases 
in  sense,  phrases  inform,  and  phrases  in  k^ibility,  then  they 
form  phraseograms  of  speed  in  writing,  and  they  are,  there- 
fore, advantageous  phrases.      When  in  doubt,  don' t phrase. 

Now  take,  for  instance,  the  following  sentence  :  Speed  in 
shorthand  is-simply  the-result  of-complete  familiarity  not-only 
with  the-characters  to-be-used,  but-also  with  the-jnatter  to-be 
reported.  Note,  first,  {a)  that  every  group  of  words  joined 
together  by  hyphens  in  this  sentence,  is  to  be  expressed  in 
fonostenografy  by  a  shorthand  phrase,  and  {Ji)  that  each 
word  that  is  not  joined  to  any  other  by  a  hyphen,  is  to  be 
represented  simply  by  a  fonostenografic  outline.  Analyz- 
ing, now,  the  reasons  for  these  ap])lications  of  the  princi- 
ples of  phrasing,  we  may  observe  the  following  points : 

(i)  The  words  " /«  shorthand"  form  a  natural  phrase 
in  sense,  but  since  they  do  not  join  well  in  fonostenografic 
writing,  and  would,  if  combined,  make  too  lengthy  an  out- 
line, they  are  held  not  to  constitute  a  phrase  inform.  They 
should,  consequently,  not  be  phrased. 

(2)  The  words  ^'is-simply"  phrase  in  sense  and  form 
and  legibility,  the  is  being  written  as  short-/'  hook  on  the 
inside  of  curve  s. 

(3)  The  terms  "the-result"  and  "of-complete"  are 
advantageously  joined  together  to  form  natural  and  fluent 
phrases,  the  prefix  re  in  the  former  being  omitted,  and,  in 
the  latter,  the  prefix  r^///  (indicated  here  by  the  ciiaracter /& 
only)  being  supplied. 


AMERICAN    FOXOSTENOGRAFY. 


95 


y^ 


^^^1^1,?  11X2/ 2i 


e/< 


r  ^ 


s 


Q_D 


\ 


1^  \\^0  (ri.^^/ 


^UL^f 


g6  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

(4)  Such  combinations  as  not-only  and  but-also,  being 
necessarily  phrased  in  sense,  should,  of  course,  whenever 
they  furnish  phrases  in  form,  be  combined  in  writing. 

(5)  Compound  verbs  composed  of  auxiliaries  and  parti- 
ciples, of  mood  and  tense  forms,  such  as  make  up  the  ex- 
pression "  to-be-2ised^\  are  to  be  phrased  in  fonostenografy, 
except  when,  as  in  the  term  "  /^  be  reported ^\  they  would 
give  outlines  that  are  awkwardly  lengthy  or  possibly  illegi- 
ble. Such  simple  infinitives  as  to-be,  to-have,  to-do,  to-go, 
to-come,  are,  of  course,  always  phrased  with  advantage. 

"  Phraseography  ",  as  Professor  Cross  truly  declares,  "  is 
likely  to-fascinate  the-pupil  and  to-be-regarded  (t  b  g  a  r) 
as  of-great-importance  (//  gr p  0  rs)  to-brevity  and  rapidity, 
but  beyond  the-short  phrases  and-simple  phrases  here  illus- 
trated it-is-not  well  for-the  mere  student  to-venture.  It-is- 
safe  to-foUow  in-the  steps  of-the-most  eminent  stenogra- 
phers, most  of-whom  use  but  simple  phrase-signs.  Recollect 
that  rapid-writing  depends  more  on  a-thorough  mastery  of 
principles  and  on-rapid  mental  and-manual  action,  devel- 
oped alone  by-rapid  and  persevering  practice,  than  on-a 
large  vocabulary  of  word  or  phrase-signs." 

As  before  stated,  shorthand  phrases  may  be  divided  into 
two  classes — simple  and  advanced  or  developed  phrase- 
signs.  Simple  i)hrases  are  those  in  which  the  i)hraseograni 
consists  of  the  outlines  of  two  or  more  words  all  of  whose 
characters  have  the  same  form  precisely  as  that  which  they 
take  when  written  separately  as  two  or  more  individual 
slenografs.     Advanced  or  develojjed   phrases  are  of  two 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


97 


^x  v^  ^  ^r".^_^..^^-.  . — j 


^-v^ 


i.O.iMl* 


.J 


98  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFV. 

kinds,  viz  :  (a)  Those  in  which  the  component  outlines  of 
the  phraseogram  are  so  modified  (usually  by  contraction) 
as  to  afford  for  the  set  of  characters  slightly  different 
phrase-outlines  from  those  which  would  represent  the  same 
words  when  they  occur  as  separate  stenografs ;  and  (^) 
those  phrase-signs  in  which  one  or  more  of  the  words  to  be 
signified  are  afforded  no  specific  representation,  but  are  nec- 
essarily implied  from  the  context  and  tiie  specific  syraboli- 
zation  of  the  other  terms  which  make  up  the  phrase.  In 
the  following  list  the  simple  phrases  and  those  which  belong 
to  the  former  class  of  the  developed  or  advanced  phrase- 
signs,  are  presented  first,  their  stenografs  being  given  on 
pages  95-103,  6.  Immediately  following  these,  come  ex- 
amples of  advanced  phrases  of  the  second  class  (103,  6-105). 
It  is  not  necessarily  desirable  that  the  student  should  set 
out  to  memorize  all  these  forms,  but  he  is  exhorted  (a)  to 
practice  reading  and  writing  them,  (l>)  to  endeavor  to  grasp 
and  apply  the  principles  which  they  are  designed  to  exem- 
plify, as  explained  in  this  chapter,  and  (c)  to  use  this  list 
for  purposes  of  reference  in  his  reporting  work. 

95,  I — About  it,  about  to  95,  2 — and  it 

according  to  and  it  could  be 

after  it  and  it  could  be  said 

after  it  has  and  it  is 

after  it  has  been  and  it  may 

after  it  is  and  it  was 

after  it  may  and  it  will 

after  it  was  and  it  will  be 
after  it  will 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


99 


AMERICAN    FONOSl  ENOGRAFV 


95,  3 — and  its  95,  8 — as  much  as 

and  itself  as  shoul  i  appear 

any  one  9 — as  should  be 

any  one  else  as  tlie 

any  one  less  as  to  its 

4 — as  alone  as  to  sue  1 

as  appears  as  to  thac 

as  becomes,  as  comes  as  to  the^e 

as  being  as  to  thi  , 

as  below,  has  been  alone  as  to  th'^se 

as  cannot  as  to  w  lat 

5 — as  could  be  done  10 — as  wel'.  as 

as  could  have  as  wo  aid  seem 

as  far  as  at  all  events 

as  fast  as  at  las 

as  for  that  1 1 — at  least 

6 — as  for  us  at  length 

as  follow,  as  follows  at  on  ) 

as  full  as  at  on';e 

as  good  as  at  xjne  time 

as  great  as  at  times 

as  Jiave  been  at  whose  (?) 

7 — as  if  it  were 

as  if  it  will  12 — Bank  account 

as  it  appears  be  required 

as  it  has  been  believe  it 

as  it  is  better  so 

as  it  may  book  account 

as  it  should  by  and  by 
as  it  was                               97,  i — by  some  means 
as  it  were 

8 — as  large  as  Can  it 

as  long  as  can  it  be 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


lOl 


■-z_2iJ> 


102 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


2 — could  it 


97,  I — can  it  take 
capable  of 
could  it  be 

f  become 

Icome 
could  it  have 
could  it  take 
circumstantial  evidence 
county  seat 

3 — Dear  madam 

dear  sir 

do  you  remember 

don't  know 

don't  need 

don't  think 

during  the 
4 — during  its 

Either  of  us 
each  other 
et  cetera  (etc.) 
earlier  than 
easier  than 
5 — ever}'  one 


97,  6 — from  one 
from  him 
from  liis 
from  me 
7 — from  us 

from  time  immemorial 

Had  another 

had  done 

have  the 

he  had 

he  had  done,  he  had  not 

he  had  been 
8 — he  has 

he  has  been 

he  has  done 

he  has  been 

he  is 

he  is  not 

he  will  be 

he  will  have 

he  will  not 
9 — her  own 

how  are 

how  will 


First  place 
five  or  six 
for  instance 
for  one 
for  once 
6 — for  us 

four  or  five 


I  am 

I  am  making 
I  could  be 
lo — I  may  be 
id  est  [i.  e.) 
i.  e.  {id  est) 
if  it  take 


AMENICAN    FONOSTENOGKAFY. 


103 


3. 


>^ 


e 


w 


>e-To  ^ 


I04 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


97,  lo — if  it  were 

if  it  will 

in  accord 
II — ill  accordance  with 

in  acknowledging 

in  acknowledgment 

in  addition 

in  another 

in  appearance 
12 — in  as  much  as 

in  circumstances 

in  compliance 

in  connection 

in  connection  with 
99,  I— in  detail,  in  tail  , 

in  consequence 

in  consideration 

in  consideration  of  this 

in  effect 

in  fact 
2 — in  full 

in  general 

in  justice 

in  need 

in  no 

in  order 

in  order  that 
3 — in  order  to 

in  reference 

in  regard 

in  relation 

in  reply 

in  respect 


99,  4 — in  response 

in  so  much  as 

in  some  manner 

in  such  manner 

in  spirit 
5 — in  such  circumstances 

in  that 

in  that  respect 

in  their  own 

in  view 

is  enough 
6 — is  it 

is  it  certain 

it  becomes 

it  comes 

it  may  be 
7 — it  may  be  said 

it  will 

it  will  be 

it  will  not  be 

Just  as 

just  how 
8 — just  as  it  is 

just  as  much 

just  as  well 
9 — just  say 

just  state 

Let  it  be 
let  it  become 
let  it  come 
10 — let  us  endeavor 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


1 05 


3.. 


^^}^ 


io6 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


99,  lo — ^let  ns  say 

let  us  state 
let  us  see 

Make  it 

II — may  be 

may  as  well 
may  give 
may  govern 
may  make 

12 — more  than 
more  or  less 
Mr.  Chairman 
Mr.  President 
much  better 
loi,  I— must  see 
my  dear 
my  dear  Sir 

Neither  of  them 
neither  of  us    • 
New  York 
2 — no  one  else 
nothing  else 
nothing  less 
none  less 
none  the  less 

Objected  to 
3— of  his 
on  account 
on  that  account 
on  these  accounts 


loi,  3 — on  this  account 
J  on  those  accounts 

4 — on  these  grounds 

on  those  grounds 

on  it» 

on  occasion 

on  receipt 
5 — on  or  after 

on  or  before 

our  own 

Per  annum 
per  cap. ,  per  capita 
present  state 
6 — please  see 
please  send 
present  us 
present  time  «i 

7 — Received  payment 
real  estate 
reasonable  doubt 

See  to  it 

set  out 
8 — set  down 

so  far  as  may  be 

so  far  as  that  is 

so  low 
9 — so  low  as 

so  long  as 

so  much  as 

so  well  as 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


107 


loi,  10 — soon  as  103,  2 — We  are 

soon  enough  we  may  be 

we  may  be  certain 
Take  it  3 — we  may  do 

that  are  what  are 

that  it  is  when  will 

that  it  will  be  whether  or  not 

that  will  be  which  are 

II — their  own  which  has  been 

there  is  which  would  be 

these  are  which  it  is 

they  are  4 — which  may  be 

there  are  ■  which  will  be 

they  will  not  with  that,  with  a 

those  are  with  those 

12 — to  do  with  their  own 

to  do  that  with  these 

together  with  with  those 

will  it,  will  let 
Under  the  circumstances      5 — why  should 
under  all  the  circumstances       why  will 
under  it  why  will  it 

103,  I— U.  S. 

U.  S.  A.  Your  right,  you  are  right 

U.  S.  Senate  your  own 

you  may  be 
Very  much  you  will 

very  soon  you  will  be 

2 — very  well  6 — you  will  have. 

vice-president  

vice  versa 
viva  voce 


io8 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY, 


103,  6- 

— Act  of  Congress 
affair  of  honor 

103,  II- 
12- 

— Hand  to  hand 
—hard  to  say 

after  a  while 

heart  to  heart 

7- 

—and  the  same 

house  of  God 

any  of  these 
any  of  those 
appears  to  be 
appears  to  have 

House  of  Representatives 

In  and  out 

in  the  course  of  events 

at  a  moment 

105,  I- 

—in  the  course  of  time 

8- 

-at  a  season 

in  the  nature  of  the  case 

at  a  stage 
Bear  to  be 

in  the  uature  of  things 
in  point  of  fact 
in  poiut  of  time 

9- 

bear  to  go 
bear  to  have 
-believe  it  to  be 

Ladies  and  gentlemen 
least  of  all 

Care  to  have 
cease  to  go 

circumstances  of  the  case 
10— court  of  common  law 
court  of  equity 
court  of  law 

Deem  it  to  be 
XI — difficult  to  state 

Face  to  face 
four  or  five 
from  day  to  day 
from  time  to  time 

Got  to  have 


2 — Member  of  the  body 
member  of  the  committee 
member  of  Congress 
more  than  that 

3 — more  than  this 

Nine  or  ten 

On  the  contrary 
on  the  other  hand 
on  the  other  side 
one  of  many 
one  of  the  most 
4 — one  or  two 
out  and  out 
over  and  over 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


109 


ro5,  4 — over  and  above 


Part  and  parcel 
party  of  the  first  part 
5 — party  of  the  second  part 
point  of  view 
presumed  to  be 
process  of  the  law 

Remains  to  be  seen 
6 — recorder  of  deeds 
room  for  improvement 

Safe  to  say 
safe  to  state 

secretary  of  the  committee 
7 — Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
Secretary  of  State 


105,  7 — Secretary  of  War 
8 — so  to  speak 
sold  at  auction 
sufficient  to  say 
state  of  facts 


9 — Three  or  four 
two  or  three 

Ways  and  means 
with  reference  to  this 
whether  or  not  {see  supra) 
10 — with  regard  to  that 
word  of  God 

Year  or  two 
years  old 


Phrases  by  elision. — In  the  representation  of  such  terms 
as  arereal,  her-reason,  in-no,  and  all  others  in  which  the 
final  specifically  symbolized  sound  of  the  preceding  word 
of  the  expression  is  precisely  the  same  as,  or  closely  cog- 
nate to,  the  first  sound  of  the  immediately  following  word, 
the  repeated  sound  is  indicated  by  but  a  single  fono- 
stenografic  sign,  the  first  of  the  two  identical  or  cognate 
sounds  being  elided.  This  principle  of  elision  is,  of  course, 
likewise  applicable  in  single  words,  an  immediately  pre- 
ceding similar  or  allied  sound  being  sometimes  stricken  out 


no  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

in  favor  of  the  symbolization  of  the  immediately  following 
phonetic  element.  An  example  of  such  fonostenografic 
elision  is  found  in  the  word?,  finger  (f  i  ngr,  the  sign  for  ^- 
hard  being  omitted),  upbore  (u  b  o  r),  upbraid  (u  br  a  d), 
hnger  (1  i  wgx),  jangling  (j  a  ng  1  ng),  A  few  examples  of 
the  application  of  this  principle  of  elision-phrases  are  af- 
forded in  the  following  terms  :  Are-right  (a  r  I  t),  are- 
written  (a  r  i  t  n),  are-wrong  {a.  r  6  ng),  her-raiment{\\  r  a  mt), 
must-stand  (m  st  a  nd),  present-time  (pr  st  I),  some-manner 
(s  m  a  nr),  some-means  .  (s  m  ens),  some-fnonths-since 
(s  m  n  th  s  i  n),  were-wrapt  (w  r  a  pt),  were-wrought 
(w  r  aw  t),  where-rolls  (w  a  r  o  1  s),  where-runs  (war  un  s), 
while-living  (wl  1  i  v  ing-doi),  will-lead  (w  1  e  d),  like-glory 
(1  1  g  1  o  r),  least-strain  (1  e  st  r  a  n). 

The  usual  habits  of  pronunciation  may,  whenever  such 
habits  make  for  more  brief  and  rapid  but  equally  legible 
outlines,  be  taken  advantage  of  in  the  practice  of  speedy  fo- 
nostenografy  ;  hence,  as  the  final  /  in  such  words  as  must. 
Just,  trust,  etc.,  and  the  final  d  in  old,  cold,  etc.,  are  sounds 
which  are  frequently  elided  in  ordinary  speech,  such  sounds 
need  not  always  be  represented  in  fonostenografic  writ- 
ing; so  when  this  final  and  unrepresented  /  after  j'  occurs 
immediately  before  a  word  beginning  with  a  represented 
j-sound,  or  the  final  d  occurs  in  the  same  relation  to  two 
/-sounds,  the  former  of  the  two  ^--sounds  or /-sounds  is  elided; 
as  in  the  phrases /////^/-xzf'/w  (105,  11),  must-search  (m  s  r  ch), 
must-swing  (m  s  w  i  ng),  last-summer  (1  a  s  m),  old- lady 
(o  1  a  d),  old-line  (o  1  i  n),  cold-lead  (k  o  1  d). 


AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY.  lit 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF 
FONOSTENOGRAFIC   SPEED 


The  foundation  of  speed  in  shorthand  is  familiarity  with 
the  fonostenografic  outlines.  The  first  stage  in  the  study 
of  stenography  is  the  learning  of  all  the  principles,  the 
mastery  of  all  the  rules  and  all  the  wordsigns  and  other 
forms  of  abbreviation.  The  second  step  is  the  application 
of  the  precepts  and  principles  of  fonostenografy  to  all  the 
ordinary  terms  of  the  language,  all  the  usual  forms  of  ex- 
pression. The  student  must  begin  his  practice  with  but 
one  purpose  in  view — the  absolutely  accurate  application 
of  the  appropriate  shorthand  principles  to  the  words  and 
phrases  to  be  reported.  After  he  has  acquired  a  complete 
knowledge  of  the  principles,  after  he  is  able  to  apply  them 
with  absolute  accuracy  and  precision  to  every  common 
term  of  English  expression,  then  the  main  object  of  his 
practice  will  be  the  mastering  of  the  ability  to  apply  the 
fonostenografic  principles  with  fluent  accuracy  and,  finally, 
with  the  most  speedy  precision.  No  shorthand  writing  is 
perfect  unless  it  be,  first  of  all,  correct  in  principle  and  fluent 
in  execution.  Speedy  shorthand  writing  is  merely  such  an 
ability  to  form  the  outlines  as  has  been  developed  to  a  de- 


J  12  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

gree  of  perfect  facility — to  such  a  degree  of  facility  that 
tlie  fonostenografic  writing  has  become  as  automatic  as 
longhand  writing  and  as  free  from  impeding  thought  of  the 
mere  mechanics  of  the  graphic  process.  Unless  the  re- 
porter can  write  his  shorthand  outlines  with  the  same  ease 
and  fluency  as  the  graphic  ease  and  fluency  of  a  rapid  long- 
hand writer,  he  will  not  succeed  in  achieving  a  high  order 
of  verbatim  skill  in  his  stenographic  work. 

A  distinguished  educator  has  recently  demonstrated  that 
all  mental  training  passes  through  three  stages  :  Analysis, 
Law,  and  Analogy.  In  fonostenografic  mental  training, 
{a)  anal3'sis  consists  of  the  apprehension  of  the  rules  and 
precepts  of  the  system ;  (If)  law,  of  the  comprehension  of  the 
principles  of 'fonostenografy,  of  the  reasons  for  the  excep- 
tions to  the  rules,  and  for  the  necessary  and  regular  depart- 
ures from  the  rules,  and  of  the  illustrations  and  examples 
based  thereon  ;  and  (c)  analogy,  of  the  application  of  these 
principles  and  precepts  to  every  class  of  words  and  word- 
constructions.  The  more  thoroughly  the  student  has  com- 
prehended and  memorized  the  principles  and  precepts,  the 
more  accurately  and  fluently  will  he  be  able  to  apply  them; 
and  the  more  frequently  he  applies  them  with  precision 
and  facility,  the  more  capable  will  he  become  of  speedy  and 
successful  shorthand-writing. 

Having  in  mind,  then,  the  nature  of  the  task  before 
him — the  acquisition  of  the  faculty  for  writing  fonosteno- 
grafic outlines,  first,  with  entire  accuracy,  and  then  with 
an  almost  automatic  ease  and  fluency, — the  student  will 


AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFV.  H^ 

reach  a  clearer  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  processes 
and  exercises  requisite  for  his  progress. 

From  the  very  outset  he  must  keepjin  mind  the  fact  that 
there  are  two  agents  at  work  in  the  writing  of  shorthand — 
the  drain  and  the  /lafii^.  Now,  in  order  to  attain  the  most 
successful  results,  each  of  these  factors  must  be  trained  to 
perfect  action,  that  action  which  is  an  automatic  compli- 
ance with  the  purposes  of  the  actor,  an  unconscious  obedi- 
ence to  writing  laws ;  each  of  these  organs  must  be  brought 
by  exercise  to  this  highest  degree  of  capability.  The 
function  of  the  hand  in  fonostenografy  is  to  write  the  out- 
lines conceived  in  the  writer's  brain  and  presented  to  his 
hand  for  proper  execution ;  and,  therefore,  just  as  the 
ancient  orator  needed  the  three  requisites  of  action,  action, 
ACTION,  the  only  exercise  that  the  mere  hand  requires 
is  the  mechanical  one  of  writing,  writing,  WRITING.  It 
has  been  asserted  by  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  competent 
of  American  reporters,  that  the  manual  dexterity  necessary 
for  the  attainment  of  the  highest  degree  of  shorthand  ac- 
complishment, is  not  possessed  by  more  than  one  person  in 
thirty.  Nevertheless,  every  writer  with  sufficient  intellect 
and  culture  to  understand  and  master  the  principles,  and 
with  sufficient  industry  and  discrimination  to  apply  them 
analogically  and  universally,  will  be  able  by  persistent 
practice,  properly  conducted  and  wisely  ordered,  to  reach 
such  a  degree  of  merely  meclianical  facility  as  will  enable 
him,  with  the  aid  of  a  thorough  mastery  of  an  adequate 
system  of  stenography,  to  produce  shorthand  characters  at 


114  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

a  reasonably  rapid  rate  of  verbatim  speed.  The  less  capa- 
ble a  writer  is  in  the  merely  mechanical  part  of  shorthand 
writing,  the  manual  execution  of  tlie  outlines,  the  greater 
is  his  need  for  the  highest  degree  of  mental  shorthand 
capacity  and  for  a  thorough  mastery  of  the  application  of 
fonostenografic  principles  to  every  class  of  words  in  the 
language  and  to  all  kinds  of  dictated  matter. 

At  the  same  time  that  the  hand  is  being  trained  to  speedy 
manual  action,  the  brain  must  be  train-ed  to  speedy  mental 
action.  The  rapid  reporter  is  obliged  not  only  to  write 
fast  but  to  think  fast,  and  slowness  in  thinking  is  a  serious 
impediment  to  the  achievement  of  fluent  graphic  processes. 
Tiie  following  remarks,  which  are  eminently  suggestive  in 
connection  with  this  subject  of  mind-])ractice,  are  quoted 
from  an  article  prepared  by  Mr.  Lewis  L.  Ellis,  of  New 
Orleans,  Louisiana,  and  published  in  the  October  1891 
number  of  the  Phonographic  World : 

"  Mental  practice  in  phonography  may  be  made  a  great  pleas- 
ure, and  entirely  freed  from  the  least  appearance  of  drudgery 
or  irksomeness,  for  anybody  who  will  persevere  far  enough  to 
overcome  the  first  difficulties— that  of  keeping  the  mind  on  the 
subject-matter,  that  of  thinking  out  the  correct  outline  and  posi- 
tion with  the  most  scrupulous  care  for  exactness,  and  that  of 
making  the  resolution  to  remember  your  practice  so  that  your 
effort  may  not  be  lost. 

"  The  late  Mr.  Fred.  Pitman,  of  London,  in  his  many  hints  on 
this  subject,  published  at  various  times  during  his  editorship  of 
the  Shorthand  Mafrazine,  has  treated  it  with  excellent  taste  and 
minute  analysis  in  the  spirit  of  a  real  lover  of  the  beautiful  art 
of  shorthand.     He  shows  how  odd  moments  of  time,  that  other- 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  II5 

wise  might  be  lost,  may  be  utilized,  and  made  conducive  not 
only  to  an  extension  of  shorthand  facility,  but  to  the  improve- 
ment of  the  niemor}'^  in  general.  The  student  who  is  debarred 
by  any  cause  from  the  benefit  of  dictation  practice,  can  be  his 
own  dictatee,  and  needs  no  writing  materials,  nor  table,  nor  desk. 
I,et  him  commit  his  piece  to  memory,  and  while  he  is  taking  a 
walk  or  waiting  for  something  to  turn  up  he  maj'  writer  it,  men- 
tally, in  the  air,  or  trace  it  with  his  finger  or  a  blunt  pencil  on 
his  hand  or  coat  sleeve,  being  sure  that  he  grasps  each  character 
firmly  with  the  inner  sense  of  sight  and  touch.  By  systematic 
practice  in  this  way,  repeated  upon  every  occasion  when  these 
odd  moments  occur,  as  they  must  certainly  occur,  the  student 
will  imperceptibly  to  himself  gain  a  vast  niimber  of  useful  out- 
lines and  phrases,  and  if  the  exercise  is  pursued  with  due  atten- 
tion he  will  be  ready  at  any  time  to  commit  them  to  paper  and 
thus  reap  the  fruits  of  his  wise  economy  of  time.  Whole  sen- 
tences may  be  thus  thought  out  and  their  appearance  impressed 
upon  the  visual  memory,  and  the  mental  exercise  involved  in 
retaining  them  is  a  good  discipline  for  the  very  sense  that  takes 
cognizance  of  the  ideas  convejed  in  dictation  practice,  and  that 
reduces  them  to  written  symbols.  I  may  not  be  expressing  my- 
self as  clearly  as  I  would  wish  ;  therefore,  at  the  risk  of  tiring 
your  patience,  I  will  give  what  I  consider  the  philosophy  of  this 
kind  of  training.  The  dictator  reads,  the  ear  receives  the  sound , 
the  mind  must  take  in  the  ideas  ;  otherwise  the  words  cannot  be 
set  down.  The  ideas  must  be  held  sufficiently  long  to  give  the 
mind  time  enough  to  resolve  them  into  words,  the  outlines  of 
which  at  once  recur,  and  this  previous  mental  practice  has  given 
the  mind  that  very  power  of  carrying  sentences  in  their  very 
shorthand  forms." 

Reading. — That  portion  of  the  student's  practice  which 
is  designed  for  mental  training  in  fonostenografy,  should 


Il6  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

consist  of  two  divisions — Writing  and  Reading.  Every 
matter  that  the  student  writes  should,  at  least  after  the  first 
writing  (and  frequently,  too,  after  subsequent  repeated 
copying),  be  carefully  perused,  critically  scanned,  and, 
wherever  accurate  and  brief  fonostenografy  requires,  pains- 
takingly, revised.  Nothing  should  ever  be  written  that 
cannot  be  also  read  with  ease  and  precision  ;  the  ability  to 
write  what  the  student  is  unable  to  read,  is  as  futile  as  the 
faculty  of  uttering  articulate  sounds  of  whose  sense  the 
speaker  has  no  comprehension.  Skill  in  reading  shorthand 
notes  grows  by  reading  both  fonostenografic  matter  and 
general  literature  of  all  kinds.  The  student  that  is  an  in- 
telligent peruser  of  a  wide  range  of  literature,  is  always 
found  to  be  more  ready  in  reading  shorthand  notes  tlian  he 
whose  range  of  reading  is  and  has  been  limited.  The  very 
logical  reason  for  this  result  is  that  the  legibility  of  his  notes 
to  every  reader  is  based  {caeteris  paribus)  upon  \\\^  sense  for 
context,  his  sense  for  the  sense  of  the  matter  dictated  or  re- 
ported. Now,  this  grasp  of  the  context  of  expression,  this 
instinctive  sense  of  its  significance,  arises  out  of  the  writer 
or  hearer's  knowledge  of  the  special  matter  in  particular  or 
of  all  such  matter  in  general ;  and  the  more  comprehensive 
a  writer's  range  of  knowledge  is  (that  is,  the  more  inclusive 
and  intelligent  his  reading  has  been),  and  the  more  detailed 
a  reporter's  knowledge  of  the  particular  matter  in  question, 
the  stronger  will  be  his  grasp  of  the  context,  and  the  more 
instinctive  and  inevitable  will  be  his  sense  for  the  signifi- 
catice  of  every  passage  reported  or  copied.    The  expert  short- 


AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY.  II7 

hand  ivriter,  therefore,  must  be  an  expert  shorthand  reader, 
and  the  expert  shorthand  reader  must  be  a  liberal  and  a  dis- 
cerning and  discriminating  reader  in  the  important  fields  of 
current  knotvledge.  This  necessary  conclusion,  missed  by 
so  many  shorthand  authors  and  students  and  practitioners, 
cannot  be  too  strongly  and  constantly,  too  persistently  and 
insistently,  impressed  upon  the  mind  of  every  learner.* 

Writing. — The  student  of  fonostenografy  should  learn 
at  the  same  time  to  read  shorthand  and  to  write  shorthand, 
just  as  he  learned  simultaneously  to  hear  and  to  speak  and 
to  understand.  Readers  of  shorthand  hear  through  the  eye, 
their  notes  being  things  /;^ar^  transmuted  into  things  seen. 

Various  special  methods  of  speed-practice  have  been  de- 
veloped by  shorthand  authors  and  teachers,  and  pursued  with 
more  or  less  benefit  by  stenografic  students.  One  of  the 
most  advantageous  of  such  methods  is  set  forth  in  detail  in 
the  notes  reproduced  on  pages  119-125,  the  special  manner 
of  practice  being  formulated  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Geo.  W. 
Bimbury,  the  expert  writer  who  holds  (1895)  the  English 

*  In  an  article  by  Mrs.  Alexander  Graham  Bell,  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly,  February  1895,  entitled  "The  Subtle  Art  of  Speech- 
Reading,"  will  be  found  an  exceedingly  interesting  discussion 
of  a  method  of  sight-reading  which  is  closely  akin  to  note- 
reading.  Nowhere  has  the  present  writer  been  able  to  find  so 
suggestive  a  presentation  of  this  matter  of  interpreting  visual 
symbols  of  articulate  expression  by  means  partly  of  the  sense  of 
sight  and  largely  of  the  sense  for  context,  as  is  afforded  in  the 
article  here  referred  to,  and  a  thoughtful  perusal  of  Mrs.  Bell's 
essay  is  recommended  to  every  student  of  shorthand. 


Il8  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

championship  record  for  reporting  against  time.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  specific  instructions  conveyed  in  the  statements 
of  this  master  of  the  shorthand  art,  and  to  tlie  various  sug- 
gestions so  far  furnished  in  this  manual,  it  may  be  desirable 
to  note  briefly  some  points  of  practice  to  which  the  stu- 
dent should  direct  attention. 

When  the  student  has  written  all  the  shorthand  matter 
given  in  the  engraved  pages  of  the  manual,  and  has  acquired, 
through  repeated  copying  and  recopying,  the  ability  to 
report  it  accurately  and  fluently,  he  should  take  n^)  original 
matter — /.  e.,  other  matter  than  that  whose  shorthand  out- 
lines are  provided  in  this  text-book.  Excellent  material 
for  the  earlier  stages  of  this  portion  of  the  student's  prac- 
tice may  be  found  in  the  text  of  this  manual,  which  the 
shorthand  learner  may  thus,  by  putting  it  into  fono- 
stenografic  characters,  review  and  thoroughly  master. 
Then  let  the  student  begin  the  writing  of  business  letters, 
as  this  sort  of  matter  aff"ords  excellent  shorthand  practice 
and  at  the  same  time  adds  to  the  writer's  business  training 
and  gives  him  a  command  of  mercantile  terms  and  forms 
and  modes  of  correspondence.  There  are  in  print  a  large 
number  of  good  business-letter  books,  any  one  of  which 
will  serve  the  learner's  purposes. 

When  one  begins  to  write  original  matter,  he  should  em- 
ploy some  one  regularly  to  read  to  him,  and,  in  addition, 
he  should  have  some  one  ta/k  to  him — that  is,  dictate  im- 
provised sentences  to  him.  Real  dictation  is  more  bene- 
ficial to  the  learning  writer  than  mere  formal  reading,  es- 


AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


119 


qJ^u^^— G//Uz^(BA^^jt^ 

/ 

1 —  / — Y  0  ^  ^ — 'I  '^^^  ^  ^ — ^  \  ^ 

Ky               C-^x    N.    6    9--.<5'   ~^  A 

120  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

pecially  in  the  early  stages  of  practice,  because  the  matter 
dictated  is  likely  to  consist  of  simpler  and  more  frequently  re- 
curring terms,  and  because  the  rapidity  of  the  dictation  will 
be  more  easily  kept  within  the  powers  of  the  writer.  Never- 
theless a  very  considerable  portion  of  the  student's  earlier 
practice  should  be  devoted  to  the  reporting  of  matter  read  to 
him.  When  the  matter  has  been  written,  the  writer  should 
first  translate  it  all  back  again  to  the  reader  and  should  very 
carefully  endeavor  to  assign  to  every  single  character  or 
outline  precisely  the  sounds  which  it  was  employed  to 
symbolize.  Then  the  shorthand  outlines  should  be  revised 
with  the  utmost  care,  each  one  of  them  being  made  to  con- 
form with  the  principles  of  fonostenografy  in  such  manner 
as  will  best  conduce  to  high  speed  and  adequate  legibility. 
It  is,  of  course,  in  this  matter  of  the  revision  of  one's  first 
notes  that  the  services  of  an  efficient  teacher  of  stenography 
will  be  found  most  essential ;  but  if  the  student  lack  such 
assistance,  his  mastery  of  the  principles  set  forth  herein  and 
his  conscientious  essays  to  apply  them,  will,  if  combined 
with  some  natural  aptitude  and  good  previous  training  in  the 
use  of  English,  in  its  vernacular  form  and  in  its  literary 
and  scientific  garb,  carry  him  through  with  eventual  success. 
After  the  fonostenografic  notes  have  been  thoroughly  re- 
vised and  the  writer  has  applied  all  the  principles  of  ab- 
breviation and  all  the  contractions  of  the  system — the 
wordsigns,  the  shorthand-root  signs,  with  or  without  pre- 
fixes and  suffixes,  the  phrase-signs,  etc., — the  matter  should 
again  be  written,  always   from  dictation,  if  possible,  and 


AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


121 


<: 


a. 

^5' 


-T/r 


^' 


I/-- 


IViJ 


\ . 


\  /  \ 


/      J — ^    \    O      o 


122  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

never  at  too  high  a  degree  of  rapidity.  The  writer's  main 
endeavor  in  this  and  the  immediately  subsequent  rewritings 
of  the  matter,  should  be  to  profit  by  every  advantageous  de- 
vice of  fonostenografy  that  will  in  fluent  writing  conduce 
to  the  utmost  rapidity  in  reporting,  and  that  will  at  the 
same  time  afford  an  adequate  legibility.  The  question  of 
what  is  adequate  legibility  will  in  each  particular  case  de- 
pend, as  has  previously  been  pointed  out,  largely  upon  the 
nature  of  the  matter  to  be  reported,  the  writer's  knowledge 
of  fonostenografy,  his  general  culture,  and  his  natural  apti- 
tude in  grasping  contexts. 

As  soon  as  the  learner  finds,  after  revising  his  notes  once 
again,  and  a  fourth  and  a  fifth  time,  if  necessary,  that  he 
is  able  to  write  the  shorthand  outlines  for  this  first  selection 
of  matter  with  absolute  accuracy  of  form  and  a  high  degree 
of  fonostenografic  brevity,  he  should  begin  to  attempt  to 
write  the  matter  with  rapidity,  the  speed  being  gradually 
raised  at  each  new  copying.  Again  and  again  should  this 
same  matter  be  reported,  the  student  never  turning  from  it 
to  a  new  selection  until  he  finds  himself  able  to  write  it  at 
a  high  rate  of  speed  and  with  finished  ease,  fluency,  and 
precision.  After  this  repeated  writing  of  that  one  particu- 
lar portion  of  reporting  matter,  the  learner  may  turn  with 
advantage  to  another  selection,  taking  at  a  time  only  a 
small  number  of  words,  say,  in  the  early  stages  of  his  prac- 
tice, not  more  than  500  or  600.  With  this  new  selection 
the  same  process  of  revision  and  recopying,  recopying 
merely  with  accuracy  at  first,  and  then  with  accuracy  and 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


"3 


n 


'^     ^      v" 


1  ^ . 


124  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

speed,  is  to  be  carefully  carried  through.  From  tlie  very 
outset  of  his  efforts  to  attain  speed  the  writer  should  re- 
member that  rapid  reporting  is  the  result  not  so  much  of 
mere  speedy  writing-movement  of  the  hand,  as  of  speedy 
mental  processes  and  the  ability  to  summon  up  instanta- 
neously and  almost  automatically  before  the  mind's  eye  a 
graphic  image  of  the  complete  and  highly  abbreviated  out- 
line that  will  legibly  symbolize  each  of  the  words  and 
phrases  to  be  reported. 

*•  Let  the  endeavor  be,"  says  Mr.  Munson,  the  author  of 
Practical  Phonography,  "  not  so  much  to  actually  write  the 
outlines  quickly,  as  to  shorten  the  time  in  passing  from  one 
outline  to  another.  This  is  done  by  thinking  quickly  and 
then  doing  the  writing  of  the  outline  with  comparative  de- 
liberation. Long  practice  of  this  kind  will  enable  the 
phonographer  to  write  swiftly,  and  at  the  same  time  there 
will  be  precision  and  accuracy  about  the  writing.'  The 
pen  will  seem  to  be  doing  work  all  the  time,  and  there  will 
be  none  of  that  jerky,  spasmodic  action  which  is  seen  in  the 
writing  of  many  reporters."  And,  on  the  other  hand,  in 
referring  not  to  the  mental  but  to  the  manual  processes 
of  speedy  stenographing.  Professor  Cross  remarks:  "In 
rapid  practice  do  not  try  to  restrain  the  action  of  the 
hand,  but  let  it  find  its  natural  action;  let  it  produce  a 
coarse  or  a  fine  style  of  writing,  whichever  is  the  easier  for 
it.  That  will  be  the  best  style  for  any  one,  which  is  natural 
to  the  hand  when  in  unrestrained  vehement  action." 

In  the  initial  stages  of  his  speed-practice   the  student 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


125 


5^^ 


■If. 


</^J- . 


cc 


'X 


> 


y,^ 


5»  '■^'^ 


:i 


126  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

should  confine  himself  more  or  less  exclusively  to  tlie  writ- 
ing of  sucli  matter  as  he  finds  most  easy  and  most  familiar 
to  him;  but  as  soon  as  he  achieves  a  sufficient  degree  of 
fonostenografic  skill  to  justify  his  extending  his  practice 
to  a  more  difficult  grade,  let  him  take  up,  first,  such  matter 
as  that  with  which  he  may  assume  he  will  have  to  deal  in 
his  prospective  actual  shorthand  work  ;  and,  concomitantly 
with  the  writing  of  such  matter  as  this,  he  should  gradually 
enlarge  his  practice  so  as  to  embra-ce  every  useful  class  of 
reporting,  such  as  sermons,  political  addresses  and  debates, 
editorials,  journalistic  essays,  literary  articles,  popular  sci- 
ence papers,  legal  forms  and  arguments  and  decisions, 
especially  in  patent  law  and  real-estate  law.  Numberless 
opportunities  for  advantageous  practice  will  i)resent  them- 
selves to  the  shorthand  learner  or  practitioner  that  goes 
abroad  armed  with  note-book  and  pen,  and  that  is  alert  to 
seize  every  chance  to  improve  his  proficiency  as  a  reporter 
and  to  augment  his  stock  and  store  of  general  knowledge. 
The  career  of  every  expert  stenographer  is  a  career  of  mar- 
velous shorthand  labor,  which  tells  of  the  filling  up  of  thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  pages  with  notes  on  every  profitable 
topic,  and  relates  the  transcribing  and  retranscribing  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  shorthand  outlines.  To  such 
shorthand  skill  as  is  called  for  in  verbatim  reporting,  there 
is  no  more  royal  road  than  the  common  thorouglifare  of 
"much  special  study,  much  general  reading,  much  con- 
stant labor."  In  the  words  of  Lincoln  to  a  would-be  great 
lawyer,  "Work,  work,  work,  is  the  main  thing." 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  I27 

A  Final  Word  as  to  Brevity  of  Outline. — Although  the 
matter  fonostenograft  on  pages  119  to  125  is  written  in  a 
style  sufificiently  brief  (and  more  than  sufificiently  legible) 
for  every  ordinary  reporting  purpose,  yet  it  is  not  so  fully 
contracted  as  to  exhibit  the  highest  development  in  brevity 
that  American  Fonostenografy  may  afford.  By  a  more  fre- 
quent application  of  the  principles  of  the  fonostenografic 
root,  by  the  omission  of  certain  unnecessary  prefixes  and 
suffixes,  and  by  a  more  complete  compliance  with  phrase- 
writing  rules,  the  matter  on  page  125  (for  instance)  may  be 
still  further  contracted  and  abbreviated,  as,  e.  g.,  the  final 
stroke  in  the  outline  for  adage  (line  2),  the  <?-circle  in  the 
pliraseogram  no-matter  {^\),  the /-stroke  in  the  outline  for 
facility  (c^'),  the  ly-hooV.  in  popularly  (6),  and  the  prefixes /« 
in  individual  and  intellectually  (7),  par  in  particular  (8), 

com  in  complete  (11),  and  re  in  repeated  (^11) these  and 

all  similar  characters  may  be  omitted  without  impairing 
seriously  the  essential  legibility  of  the  writing;  but  it  is 
only  in  some  grades  of  very  rapid  verbatim  work  that  a 
higher  degree  of  contraction  than  that  of  which  the  closing 
shorthand  pages  of  this  manual  afford  the  standard,  will  ever 
be  required  in  the  stenographer's  actual  practice. 


128  AMERICAN   FONOSTENOGRAFY. 


MISCELLANEOUS  SUGGESTIONS. 


Punctuation. — While  every  student  and  practitioner  of 
the  art  of  shorthand  needs  a  knowledge  of  proj^er  punctu- 
ation, it  appears  to  the  writer  of  this  manual  that  a  presenta- 
tion of  the  rules  of  punctuation  should  not  demand  space 
for  itself  in  these  pages.  There  is  no  more  justification  for 
a  shorthand  author's  attempt  to  teach  punctuation  in  his 
shorthand  text-book  than  for  his  endeavor  to  teach  spell- 
ing in  a  stenographic  manual.  These  arts — orthography 
(which  includes  capitalization)  and  punctuation — should  be 
mastered  before  shorthand  is  studied,  or,  if  not  at  that  time 
already  mastered,  they  should  each  of  them  be  studied  as 
shorthand  is  studied,  in  its  own  technical  manual.  There 
are  many  excellent  and  easily  available  special  treatises  on 
this  important  art  of  punctuation,  and  the  shorthand  learner 
is  earnestly  exhorted  to  procure  some  one  or  more  of  these 
special  works  and  to  master  the  contents  thereof  in  suf- 
ficient detail  to  serve  all  the  practical  purposes  of  reporting. 

In  the  practice  of  fonostenografy  it  is  not  advisable  or 
even  possible  to  insert  all  the  punctuation-marks  that  would 
properly  appear  in  the  same  matter  were  it  written  in  long- 
hand or  printed  in  the  usual  style  of  typography.  It  is  a 
rule  of  shorthand  writing,  however,  that  the  period  (which 
in  fonostenografy  is  represented,  not  by  a  dot,  but  by  a 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  I  29 

cross,  a  cross  in  the  writing  being  much  more  conspicuous 
than  a  dot)  and  the  eroteme  or  question-mark,  should  always 
be  inserted.  It  is  well,  too,  to  indicate  all  the  colons  and 
semicolons  that  the  writer  at  the  time  of  reporting  may 
know  it  to  be  proper  to  insert.  To  prevent  the  shorthand 
dash  and  parentheses  and  hyphen  from  bearing  a  mislead- 
ing resemblance  to  any  fonostenografic  outline,  it  is  usual 
to  draw  through  the  former  two  of  these  three  punctuation- 
marks  a  light  tick  or  very  short  stroke  traced  upward,  and 
to  write  the  hyphen  double — that  is,  in  the  form  of  two 
j)arallel  longhand  hyphens  (v.  123,  11).  To  indicate  the 
beginning  of  a  new  paragraph,  use  the  mark  illustrated  on 
line  8  of  the  engraved  page  85.  To  show  that  a  particu- 
lar word  or  phrase  is  to  be  emphasized  or  stressed  or  tran- 
scribed in  italics,  the  writer  should  underscore  it  with  a 
waved  Wn^,  or  with  two  straight  lines  half  an  inch  or  more 
in  length.  To  denote  that  a  word  is  a  proper  name  or  be- 
gins with  a  capital,  use  the  sign  of  the  two  short  parallels 
shown  at  55,  6,  and  119,  i. 

Typewrititig. — Every  student  that  contemplates  employ- 
ment as  a  stenographer,  needs,  as  a  sine  qua  non  to  his 
capability  of  filling  a  shorthand  position,  the  ability  to 
operate  a  typewriting  machine  in  an  expert  manner;  still, 
instruction  in  typewriting  forms  no  proper  part  of  a  short- 
hand manual.  There  are  now  upon  the  book  market  many 
excellent  volumes  on  this  art  of  typewriting,  and  to  the 
standard  works  of  this  character  the  stenographic  student 
is  referred  {see  pages  133-134,  infra). 


130  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

Initials  and  Numerals. — Every  alphabetic  letter  occur- 
ring singly  and  all  initials  of  personal  names  and  titles,  are 
represented  in  fonostenografy  by  the  symbols  of  their 
sounds,  the  name  of  the  initial  or  letter  being,  as  is  very 
regular  and  logical,  regarded  as  an  ordinary  word  and  rep- 
resented by  sound-symbols,  just  as  all  other  words  in  the 
language  are  represented  ;  hence  A  =  ^  and  is  symbolized 
in  fonostenografy  hy  a ;  '&  =  dee  (be);  C=^eee  (s  e)  ; 
D  =  dee  (d  e);  E=  ^  (e);  F=^(e  f);  g=gee  (j  e)  ; 
H  =  aitch  (a  ch)  ;  j  =jay  ( j  a)  ;  Q  =  ku  (k  u)  ;  W  = 
double-u  (d  b  u)  ;  Z  =  zee  (z  [that  is,  s  with  light  tick  drawn 
through  it]  e). 

Titles  are  indicated  in  like  manner — e.  g.,  LL.  M.  is 
represented  by  e  I,  e  I,  e  m  ;  Ph.  D.,  by  /  e,  a  ch,  d  e  ; 
R.  M.  S.,  by  a  r,  e  m,  e  s.  So,  likewise,  the  longhand  ab- 
breviations, consisting  of  two  or  more  single  and  separate 
letters,  may  be  signified  in  stenography  by  the  symbols  of 
the  names  of  the  letters  that  make  up  the  abbreviations  ;  for 
example,  /,  e.  is  denoted  by  i  e  (F.  p.  99)  ;  e.  g.,  by  e  j  e  ; 
but  abbreviations  such  as  gal.,  Co.,  acc't,  rec't,  and  Prof., 
should  be  represented  by  the  fonostenografic  root  of  the 
full  word  for  which  the  abbreviation  stands,  because  this 
representation  will  be  found  to  be  the  most  legible,  the 
most  regular,  and  the  most  brief.  The  habit  of  using  such 
contractions  as  Prof.,  Col.,  Dr.,  etc.,  and  ry.,  and  the 
practice  of  representing  these  unphonetic  forms  in  short- 
hand by  some  approximate  symbolization,  not  of  the  names 
of  the  contracted  7cord,  but  of  the  name  (frequently  un- 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  I3I 

pronounceable  in  longhand)  of  the  mere  contraction,  is  a 
noteworthy  manifestation  of  a  tendency,  everywhere  ex- 
emplified in  the  ordinary  English  orthography — the  atavis- 
tic tendency  to  revert  back  from  sound-writing  to  idea- 
writing  or  picture-writing,  from  phonography  to  ideogra- 
phy  or  pictography. 

Court  Reporting. — The  writer  of  this  manual  is  reluctant, 
indeed,  to  repeat  that  crowning  absurdity  which  is  com- 
mitted universally  by  standard  shorthand  authors — the 
absurdity,  /.  e.,  of  presenting,  in  these  days  of  special 
treatises  on  every  specialized  form  of  art  and  science,  to 
the  shorthand  student  as  soon  as  he  completes  his  study  of 
stenography  a  more  or  less  detailed,  but  always  inadequate, 
disquisition  on  the  technicalities  of  court  or  law  reporting. 
No  writer  ever  reached  the  eminence  of  court  reporting 
until  lie  had  devoted  months  and  years  to  the  assiduous 
cultivation  of  the  art  oi  shorthand,  and  no  student  is  pre- 
pared upon  the  completion  of  his  study  of  a  stenographic 
manual — /.  e. ,  his  study  merely  of  the  science  of  shorthand — 
to  give  his  attention  to  the  acquisition  of  a  knowledge  of 
the  technical  application  of  shorthand  to  court  reporting. 
The  technique  of  such  work  is  acquired  by  personal  ex- 
perience in  subordinate  positions  long  after  the  reporter  has 
advanced  beyond  the  horn-book  period  of  study  and  prac- 
tice. Moreover,  the  occasion  for  discussing,  in  the  ordi- 
nary shorthand  manual  or  "  Reporter's  Companion,"  the 
subject  of  court  reporting,  grows,  if  possible,  less  and  less 
with  the  issue  from  time  to  time  of  special  works  designed 


132  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

to  furnish  complete  information  upon  this  special  line  of 
reporting.  The  standard  work  on  this  subject  is  Mr.  W.  H. 
Thome's  "  Instructions  in  Practical  Court  Reporting," 
and  to  a  study  of  this  admirable  treatise  it  would  be  well 
to  commend  every  aspiring  professional  stenographer. 


All  students  of  American  Fonostenografy  that  desire  to 
pursue,  personally  or  by  mail,  an  advanced  course  in  the 
study  and  practice  of  this  system  of  shorthand,  are  re- 
quested to  communicate  with  the  author.  {Address  ^07  E 
street  northwest,  Washington,  D.  C.)  Review  and  practice 
courses  of  study,  which  may  be  extremely  necessary  and 
beneficial  to  such  students,  but  which,  nevertheless,  are  ex- 
cluded from  presentation  in  the  limited  space  afforded  in 
the  pages  of  this  manual,  can  through  the  medium  of  the 
communications  here  requested,  be  suggested,  arranged, 
and  satisfactorily  prosecuted. 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAPY.-  133 


THE  MENTAL  CULTURE  OF  THE  REPORTER. 


"  It  is  a  kaleidoscopic  profession,  in  which  no  knowledge 
comes  amiss."  This  remark,  though  applied  to  journalism, 
is  quite  as  true  of  the  profession  of  shorthand.  The  sten- 
ographer who  desires  to  attain  the  most  eminent  degree  of 
proficiency  in  his  work,  must,  it  has  frequently  been  as- 
serted, know  all  about  something  (shorthand)  and  some- 
thing about  everything ;  hence  he  must  pursue  and  seize 
every  possible  chance  or  method  of  acquiring  sj^ecial  tech- 
nical shorthand  knowledge  and  of  obtaining  general  col- 
lateral information — information  upon  all  important,  prac- 
tical, current  subjects. 

To  get  the  technical  knowledge  and  the  professional 
culture  necessary  for  consummate  success  as  a  stenographer, 
every  student,  amanuensis,  and  reporter  should  have  a 
shorthand  library  containing,  among  other  works  of  a  less 
technical  shorthand  character,  such  useful  volumes  as  the 
following,  which  may  be  recommended  to  all  students  and 
practitioners  of  stenography  : 

First  of  all,  every  publication  preseuting  or  discussing  the 
principles  and  practice  of  the  particular  system  of  stenography 
which  he  himself  writes  ;  S.  A.  Moran's  100  Useful  Suggestions 
to  Shorthand  Students  ;  The  Mastery  of  Shorthand,  by  David 
Wolfe  Brown  ;   Practical  Typewriting,  by  Bates  Torrey ;  The 


T34  AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY. 

Mills  Book  of  Typewriter  Forms  ;  lOO  Lessons  in  Business,  by 
Sejtnour  Eaton  ;  some  standard  work  on  punctuation  and  capi- 
talization and  proof-reading  ;  Payne's  Business  Educator  ;  Prac- 
tical Court  Reporting,  by  H.  W.  Thome  ;  Roberts'  or  Cushing's 
Rules  of  Order  ;  Jefferson's  Manual  of  Procedure  for  Deliberative 
Assemblies  ;  Ladder  of  Journalism,  by  T.  Campbell-Copeland  ; 
Dr.  Westby-Gibson's  Bibliography  of  Shorthand  ;  The  History 
and  Literature  of  Shorthand,  by  Julius  Ensign  Rockwell ;  some 
standard  law  reference  manual,  and  also  the  most  authoritative 
book  of  local  legal  forms. 

More  stenographers  fail  by  reason  of  a  lack  of  general 
culture,  a  lack  of  knowledge  of  English  grammar,  English 
punctuation  and  composition,  than  by  reason  of  any  other 
deficiency.  No  one  should  expect  success  in  the  study  and 
practice  of  English  shorthand  unless  he  has  a  good  working 
knowledge  of  the  English  language.  To  succeed  in  doing 
the  highest  grade  of  work  in  English  shortljand,  requires  a 
thorough'VnoviXQdgQ  of  English,  and  no  one  can  be  said  to 
have  a  thorough  knowledge  of  English  unless  he  has  also  at 
least  "  a  little  Latin  and  less  Greek  " — that  is,  some  appre- 
hension of  these  languages  from  an  etymologic  point  of 
view.  The  knowledge  of  French  and  German,  at  least  in 
a  limited  literary  way,  is  quite  important  on  account  of  the 
etymologic  and  orthographic  relations  of  these  tongues  to 
the  vernacular.  The  expert  stenographer  needs  also,  among 
much  other  general  information,  a  knowledge  of  history, 
political  economy,  common  law,  and  constitutional  law. 
Of  course,  the  knowledge  that  is  here  spoken  of  as  being 
essential  to  a  reporter's  complete  success,  is  not  a  scholarly 


AMERICAN    FONOSTENOGRAFY.  1 35 

or  exhaustive  knowledge  of  these  special  subjects,  as  this  is 
quite  out  of  the  range  of  the  ordinary  expert  stenographer, 
but  xnextXy  dt.  journalistic  knowledge,  a  knowledge  of  the 
names  rather  than  of  the  things,  a  knowledge,  indeed,  of 
the  form  rather  than  of  the  substance,  an  associative  rather 
than  an  analytic  knowledge. 

Shorthand  Magazines. — Every  stenograplier  should  be  a 
regular  reader  of  one  or  more  of  the  best  shorthand  maga- 
zines. These  journals  furnish  many  special  matters  of  in- 
struction in  stenography  and  typewriting,  that  are  not  and 
cannot  well  be  presented  in  the  text-books;  moreover,  the 
shorthand  periodicals  contain  much  that  is  of  general  util- 
ity to  the  student  or  amanuensis  or  reporter,  and  they  serve 
to  keep  every  one  that  is  interested  in  the  science  and  art 
of  stenography  well  informed  as  to  the  general  progress  of 
events  in  the  shftrthand  world,  and  as  to  the  present  and 
future  of  tiie  shorthand  field  of  labor.  Among  the  many 
publications  of  this  special  character  there  are  none  so  ex- 
cellent in  every  way  as  the  two  journals  advertised  in  the 
pages  of  the  present  edition  of  this  manual. 


AMERICAN  FONOSTENOGRAFY 

(The  RAPID  and  READABLE  SHORTHAND) 


TEXT-BOOKS. 

Part  I  (56  pp.).  paper  cover     .         .         .         .$0  50 

r paper  cover  .         .     i  00 
Complete  (parts  I  and  II),  -^ 

(^  cloth  binding         .     i  25 


For  information  concerning  American  Fonostenog- 
RAFY,  text-books,  personal  instruction,  etc., 

Address  the  author — 

WII.I.IAM  McDEViTT,  I.L.  M., 

^oj  E  Street  northwest, 

Washitigtoji,  D.  C. 


FONOSTENOGRAFY 

BY    MAIL 


Thousands  of  students  are  learning  short- 
hand through  correspondence  lessons,  such 
instruction,  in  cases  in  which  it  is  impractica- 
ble to  have  direct  personal  lessons,  affording 
the  most  advantageous  method  of  acquiring  a 
knowledge  of  the  art.  The  author  of  Ameri- 
can F0NOSTENOGRA.FY  has  taught  shorthand 
by  mail  to  many  pupils,  and  will  furnish  such 
instruction,  at  the  usual  rates,  either  to  indi- 
vidual students  or  to  correspondence  classes. 

For  information  as  to  methods  and  terms,  ad- 
dress the  author. 


Every  Student  and  Teacher  of  ''AMERI- 
CAN FONOSTENOGRAFV  should  be  a 
monthly  reader  of  the 

ILLUSTRATEI> 

PHONOGRAPHIC    WORLD, 

the  oldest,  largest,  best,   and  cheapest  pho- 
nographic periodical  published 
in  the  United  States. 
Subscription  price,  only  FIFTY  CKNTS  a 
year,  twelve  numbers  yearly. 

A  postal  card  addressed  to  the  publisher  will  bring 
you  a  sample  copy  and  will  convince  you  that  you 
cannot  afford  to  be  without  it. 

E.  N.  MINER,  Publisher, 
4.5  Liberty  Street,  New  York  City. 


TYPEWRITERS. 

Largest  like  establishment  in  the  world.  First- 
class  Second-hand  Instruments  at  half  new  prices. 
Unprejudiced  advice  given  on  all  makes.  Ma- 
chines sold  on  monihly  payments.  Any  Instru- 
ment manufactured  shippfd.privilege  to  examine. 
EXCHANGING  A  SPECIALTY.  "^  holesale  prices 
to  dealers,"  Illustrated  Catalogues  Free. 

TIPEWEITEE  EEAEQUAETEES, 

45  LiBSfiTY  Stb£et,  New  York. 


SMITH 

PREMIER 

TYPEWRITER 


HAS  MANY  IMPROVEMENTS  HERETOFORE 

OVERLOOKED  BY  OTHER 

MANUFACTURERS. 


SEIMX    ON     XRIAU    AND     RENXED. 


THE  SMITH  PREMIER  TYPEWRITER  CO., 

i^i6  F  Street,  Washington,  D.  C. 


THE  STENOGRAPHER. 

(Edited  by  Francis  H.  Hemperley) 


BRIGHT— NEWSY— UNPREJUDICED 


Represents  all  systems  of  shorthand  and  all  machines.     Has 
the  largest  circnlation.     Contains  a  special  I^aw  De- 
partment and  a  Teachers'  Department.     Its  arti- 
cles are  contributed  by  the  brighter  minds 
in    the    Profession.     Aims    to   be    the 
Organ  of  the  Shorthand  and  Type- 
writing Profession  and  to  be  of 
service  to  the  amanuensis  as 
well  as  the  professional 
stenographer. 


Single  copies,  lo  cents.       Yearly  subscription,  $i.oo, 
in  advance. 

Write  for  a  sample  copy  and  for  catalogue  of  books,  etc. 


THE  STENOGRIPHER  PRINTING  &  PUBLISMING  CO., 

38  SOUTH  SIXTH    ST.,  PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 


Size  (Barrels  Cut  Down)  of  the  Lancaster  Govern- 
ment Fountain  Pens. 


f 


(No.  6. 


No.  2.         No.  3.  No.  5.  No.  5 

$3.00.         $3.50.  $5.00.  $6.00 

These  Prices  Include  a  Warranted  Solid  Gold  Pen 


Hex- 
^«°"1$7.00. 


THE  LANCASTER  GOVERNMENT  PEN  COMPANY, 


919  F  STREET  NORTHWEST, 


WASHINQTON,  D.  C. 


Fountain  Pens  I<;xchanged  and  Repaired. 

Leads  to  Fit  all  Sizes  Gold  Lead  Pencils. 


^,  0 


UNIVERSITY  of  CAUFORNIa 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 

LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


MAR  9-1981 


ForTnL9-10m-3,'48(A7920)444 


256    McDevitt  - 
M143a  American 


i[JC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  576  272     9 


""yfj 


Z56 
ia43a 


^ 


tmmmmmm'mmmmmtmm 


mmmmimiiii^fmmmifmimtmKnsu 


imttMttmmmtmtimlmmtmmmm 


